BL 
240 
.K55 
1893 


tihx<xry  of  t:he  theological  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


L 


BL    240    .K55    1893 

Kinsley,  William  Wirt,  1837 

1923. 
Science  and  prayer 


THE   CHAUTAUQUA  LITERARY   AND  SCIEN- 
TIFIC CIRCLE. 
3^oun^c&  (n  1878. 

This  volume  is  a  part  of  the  course  of  home  reading  the 
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John  H.  Vincent,  Drawer  194,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

THE  REQUIRED  LITERATURE  FOR  1893-4. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  Modern  Europe. 
James  R.  Joy fl.OO 

Roman  and  Medieval  Art  (illustrated).    W.  H. 
Goodyear 1.00 

Outlines  of  Economics.    Richard  T.  Ely  .       1.00 

Classic  Latin  Course  in  English.    W.  C.  Wil- 
kinson     1.00 

Song   and   Legend  from   the  Middle   Ages. 
Edited  by  W.  D.  McCIintock 50 

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Cbautauqua  IRea&liifl  Circle  Uttecature    X%)ft/(;^^[_ 


SCIENCE  AND  PRAYER 


¥ 


BY 


W.  W.  KINSLEY 


Author  of  "  Vietvs  on  Vexed  Questions. 


FLOOD  AND  VINCENT 
Cbe  (^ijautauquarfCcnturp  ^u0 

MEADVILLE  PENNA 

150  FIFTH  AVE.  NEW  YORK 

1893 


Copyright,  1893, 
By  Flood  &  Vincent. 


The  ChautauqiLa-Century  Press,  Meadville,  Pa.,  U.  <S.  A. 
Electrotyped,  Printed,  and  Bound  by  Flood  cfe  Vincent 


CONTENTS. 

Chapter.  Page. 

I.  God  can  Interfere  when  and  as  He  Chooses^ 
ivithout  Destroying  any  Force  or  Abrogating 
any  Law    .......  5 

II.     He  has  in  fact  from  time  to  time  thus  Inter- 
fered and  is  still  Interfering       .         .         .         27 

III.     He  will  Interfere  for  each  one  of  us,  however 

Insignificant  we  may  at  present  seem  to  he  44 

lY.  He  will  Interfere  because  we  ■  ask  Him,  Do- 
ing for  us  what  otherwise  he  would  not 
have  Done 67 

Y.     Every   Sensible  Prayer  offered  in  the  Right 

Spirit  is  certain  of  Favorable  Answer         .         94 


SCIENCE  AND  PRAYER. 


I. 

The  Scriptures  affirm,  that,  in  answer  to  prayer,  a 
part  of  Palestine  was  once  visited  with  long  drought  and 
afterward  with  copious  rains  and  harvests,  an  entire 
family  healed,  a  raging  fire  quenched,  God's  purpose  to 
destroy  a  stiff-necked  people  changed,  the  sun  and  moon 
apparently  stopped  in  mid-heaven  for  an  entire  day,  a 
thunderstorm  made  to  burst  right  in  wheat  harvest,  a 
leprous  hand  cured,  a  dead  child  revived,  a  good  king's 
life  lengthened,  and,  for  an  assuring  token,  a  dial's 
shadow  actually  turned  backward. 

The  Bible  unmistakably  teaches  thai]  God  both  can 
and  does  interfere  in  our  behalf,  that  his  interference 
often  is  a  direct  result  of  our  asking,  that  all  reasonable 
prayers  offered  in  a  right  spirit  are  certain  of  favorable 
answer.  The  requests  may  be  as  varied  as  the  health- 
ful  and  intelligent  longings  of  human  hearts. 

Some  scientists  smile  at  what  they  style  the  childish 
credulity  of  the  Christian's  creed.  Our  investigations, 
say  they,  have  disclosed  a  universal  reign  of  unchangea- 
ble law,  not  only  in  the  production  of  material  but  even 

5 


6  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

of  mental  phenomena.  We  have  found  that  within  the 
walls  of  every  particle  of  matter  there  is  lodged  a  force  j 
that  these  forces  are  of  sixty-four  or  more  different 
kinds,  and  their  differences  in  nature  and  effect  make 
all  the  differences  in  the  substances  about  us  ;  that  they 
bear  to  each  other  certain  unalterably  fixed  relations, 
and  exert  over  each  other  unalterably  fixed  influences. 
These  relations  we  have  been  able  by  our  experiments 
to  reduce  to  mathematical  formulae.  We  have  found 
that  these  forces  never  manifest  themselves  unless 
certain  conditions  are  fulfilled,  and  that,  when  they  are, 
the  forces  invariably  appear  and  act  always  in  precisely 
the  same  way.  It  is  also  claimed,  that,  as  far  back  as 
we  can  peer  into  the  past,  this  same  order  has  prevailed  ; 
that  this  rock-ribbed,  wave-washed,  verdure-clad, 
densely  populated  earth  of  ours  has  come  up  out  of 
chaotic  fire-mist  by  the  operations  of  none  other  than 
these  very  forces  which  at  the  first  were  hidden  within 
it ;  that  the  earth  has  developed  from  its  unorganized 
primordial  state  into  its  present  complexity  with  as 
regular  gradations  of  growth  as  those  through  which  the 
oak  passes  in  pushing  up  from  out  the  walls  of  the  acorn 
its  sinewy  stem  with  outreaching  boughs  and  waving 
pennons  ;  that  the  earth  itself  is  an  organism  as  truly  as 
the  tree,  has  like  complemental  parts,  has  had  a  germinal 
beginning,  has  been,  and  still  is,  incarnating  under  pre- 
established  laws  of  evolution,  point  by  point,  age  after 
age,  a  certain  set  ideal  under  the  guidance  of  a  central 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  7 

germ-power,  divinely  commissioned  it  may  be,  but  com- 
missioned even  as  to  the  details  of  its  finest  microscopic 
work,  untold  millions  of  years  ago. 

How  idle,  then,  it  is,  they  claim,  for  weak,  blind  chil- 
dren of  a  day  to  presume  to  break  in  on  this  grand 
order  of  the  universe  !  Go  out  into  nature,  they  tell  us, 
and  you  will  find  that  not  a  single  one  of  her  laws 
is  ever  abrogated,  that  from  their  control  not  the  least 
thing  is  for  an  instant  released.  Gravity  holds  in  its 
grasp  not  only  the  ponderous  suns  with  their  whirling 
satellites,  but  every  infinitesimal  mote  that  floats 
in  the  air.  The  force  shut  up  within  the  walls  of 
an  atom  of  carbon  is  never  dislodged,  and  never 
loses  a  single  characteristic.  Manacle  it  with  fetters 
of  frost,  immerse  it  in  the  white  heat  of  a  furnace, 
smite  it  with  a  trip-hammer  on  the  face  of  an 
anvil,  hurl  it  into  the  chemical  embrace  of  an  affinitive 
element,  do  what  you  will  with  it,  it  will  reappear  iden- 
tically the  same  atom  informed  by  precisely  the  same 
mysterious  force.  This  speck  of  matter  defies  all 
powers  of  earth  or  sky  to  batter  in  its  walls  and 
drive  out  its  occupant.  Every  force,  the  world  over, 
says  that  only  those  who  find  its  secret  and  meet  the 
conditions  can  command  its  services.  Do  you  want 
bread  ?  Here  are  the  seed,  the  soil,  the  air,  the  shower, 
and  the  sunbeam.  Matter  and  force  are  at  your  bid- 
ding, but  their  laws  are  inexorable.  Eays  of  light  will 
travel  ninety-five  millions  of  miles  to  serve  you  ;  the  at- 


8  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

mosphere  will  gather  its  clouds  from  the  ocean  and  float 
them  across  a  continent  to  pour  their  treasures  at 
your  feet ;  the  mountains  will  furnish  you  millstones, 
and  the  running  brooks  will  turn  them.  The  forests 
that  grew  a  hundred  thousand  years  ago  you  may 
find  packed  away  in  beds  of  anthracite,  waiting  to  heat 
your  ovens  so  soon  as  your  dough  is  ready  for  the 
baking.  Not  a  force  in  nature  but  will  serve  the  veriest 
outcast  if  he  will  comply  with  the  conditions  ;  not 
one,  even  the  humblest,  will  condescend  to  move  so 
much  as  a  hair's-breadth  even  for  the  Czar  of  all  the 
Eussias,  unless  he  does.  The  prayerless  sinner  and  the 
praying  saint  meet  here  on  a  common  level.  All 
those  stories  about  producing  thunderstorms  by  prayer, 
healing  the  sick,  turning  back  shadows,  stopping  the 
sun  in  the  heavens,  raising  the  dead,  are  thoroughly  un- 
scientific and  absurd,  and  the  height  of  absurdity  is 
reached  when  it  is  claimed  that  the  all- wise  Creator 
can  be  induced  to  change  his  plans  by  the  importunate 
pleadings  of  a  little  creature  to  whom  he  has  given  a 
brief  existence  on  one  of  the  obscure  satellites  of  one  of 
the  million  suns  that  make  up  one  of  the  nebulous 
clusters  with  which  the  heavens  are  swarming.  What 
greater  presumption  can  be  imagined?  Has  the  Al- 
mighty so  sadly  blundered  in  his  plans  that  this  little 
creature  can  discover  to  him  their  defects,  and  induce 
him  to  make  a  change  at  this  late  day,  when  everything 
is  so  intimately  interlinked  and  interdependent  that 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  9 

an  interference  in  one  part  may  demand  a  reconstruc- 
tion throughout  the  whole  in  order  to  avoid  widespread 
confusion  and  ruin!  Can  God  spare  any  special  thought 
now  for  such  infinitesimal  interests  so  long  as  the  con- 
cerns of  this  vast  swinging  universe  are  upon  him  ?  He 
has  laid  down  broad  general  plans.  We  cannot  reason- 
ably expect  him  to  listen  to  our  baby  prattle  about 
the  petty  details  of  our  vanishing  lives.  If  we  thrust 
our  hands  into  the  fire,  live  in  a  malarious  district, 
are  capsized  in  mid-ocean,  we  must  suffer  the  natural 
consequences,  and  look  about  us,  as  best  we  can,  for 
a  more  congenial  environment. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  attitude  assumed  at  the  present 
day  by  a  majority  of  scientists  on  this  one  of  the 
most  vital  and  perplexing  of  questions.  This  their  creed 
is,  as  I  think  can  be  clearly  shown,  a  most  mischiev- 
ous mixture  of  truth  and  error.  The  spirit  of  cold 
speculative  scepticism  pervading  it  is  making  rapid 
inroads  upon  all  classes  in  society.  How  many  even 
of  those  who  have  been  gathered  into  the  fold  of  the 
church  have  fallen  under  the  blighting  spell  of  this 
genius  of  modern  materialistic  thought !  How  many 
prayers  are  simply  the  outbreathings  of  a  reverential 
fear,  or  are  a  mere  dead  formalism,  or  the  results  of  sheer 
habit !  How  many  are  little  else  than  agonized  longings 
accompanied  with  no  joyous  expectation  !  How  few, 
very  few,  are  offered  with  the  same  confident  assurance 
of  results  as  inspires  the  farmer  when  he  sows  his  fields,. 


10  SCIENCE  AND  PBA  YER. 

or  the  telegraphic  operator  when  with  his  key  he 
closes  the  electric  circuit  and  sends  his  messages  over 
the  long  leagues  of  ocean  cable  I 

My  purpose  at  present  is  to  show  : — 

1st.  That  phenomena  and  the  producing  forces  with 
their  laws  or  modes  of  working,  brought  to  light  by 
scientific  investigations  in  the  fields  of  physics  and 
of  metaphysics,  harmonize  perfectly  with  the  Scripture 
view  of  prayer,  and  abound  in  suggestions  of  how 
God  can  interfere  in  nature  without  destroying  any  force 
or  abrogating  a  single  law. 

2d.  That,  as  a  fact,  he  has  thus  actually  interfered 
again  and  again. 

3d.  That  it  is  not  only  not  presumptuous,  but 
most  natural  and  reasonable,  for  us  to  expect  that  he 
will  interfere  for  uSj  insignificant  though  we  may  seem 
to  be. 

4th.  That  he  will  interfere  because  we  ask  him, 
doing  for  us  what  otherwise  he  would  not  have  done. 

5th.  And,  lastly,  that  he  will  not  in  a  single  instance 
withhold  any  real  blessing  which  is  asked  for  in  the 
right  spirit,  and  the  bestowal  of  which  lies  within 
the  compass  of  his  power. 

1st.  Hoic  can  God  answer  prayer  without  destroy- 
ing any  force  or  abrogating  any  law?  In  my  own 
experience,  real  light  on  this  point  first  came  from 
the  perusal  of  Dr.  BushnelPs  ^^IS^ature  and  the  Super- 
natural."    His  mode  of  treatment  has  long  since  passed 


SCIENCE  AND  Pit  A  YER.  11 

out  of  memory,  but  a  thought-germ  was  lodged  in  my 
mind  which  has  since  grown  into  a  deep-rooted  con- 
viction. As,  however,  I  have  followed  out  these  lines  of 
thought,  it  has  been  a  constant  source  of  surprise  that  so 
many  of  the  scientists,  while  they  have  with  tireless 
patience  and  keenest  insight  unraveled  much  of  the  in- 
finite intricacy  that  attends  the  interplay  of  nature's 
forces,  unearthing  so  many  secrets  and  becoming  masters 
in  so  many  fields  of  inquiry,  have  seemingly  lost  sight  of 
that  most  interesting  and  important  of  all  facts,  that 
everywhere  ample  provision  has  been  made  for  the 
efficient  interference  of  direct  will  power.  They  of 
course  cannot  have  failed  to  discover  it,  for  there  is 
hardly  a  waking  moment  in  the  lives  of  any  of  us  when 
we  are  not  conscious  that  we  actually  exercise  volitions, 
and  that  these  volitions  effect  changes,  and  sometimes 
most  important  ones,  in  the  world  about  us.  How 
our  wills  are  thus  linked  with  matter,  it  would  probably 
puzzle  the  wisest  to  explain  ;  but  that  they  actually  are, 
is  a  fact  patent  to  all.  And  so  I  surmise  it  is  not 
the  fact,  but  the  deep  significance  of  the  fact,  that  has  so 
strangely  escaped  the  notice  of  so  many  of  our  savants  of 
science. 

Over  my  body  in  many  particulars  my  will  exercises 
direct  control.  I,  for  instance,  order  my  hand  lifted. 
The  mandate  instantly  flashes  from  the  brain  down 
the  motor  nerves  to  the  very  muscles  in  waiting,  and 
their  fibres  at  once  begin  to  shorten.     I  exercise  this 


12  SCIENCE  AND  FRA  YER. 

direct  will  power  right  against  the  force  of  gravity,  tem- 
porarily   overpowering    but  not  destroying  it,    for  it 
still   continues  to  pull  the  hand  down  with  the  same 
might  as  before.     This  overbalancing  of  one  force  by 
another  is  taking  place  everywhere  throughout  nature. 
For  illustration,  take  a  tumbler  of  water.     If  it  were 
not  for  the  cohesive  attraction  between  the  particles 
of  the  glass  being  stronger  than  the  gravity,  the  sides 
would  crumble  into  dust,  and  sink  with  the  water  to  the 
lowest  attainable  level.     Gravity  has  not  been  destroyed, 
but  simply  mastered  by  a  stronger  antagonist.     Eemove 
a  part  of  the  heat  from  the  water,  and  it  will  become 
a   crystallized  solid,    showing  that  until  now  the  heat 
force  has  been  holding  the  crystalline  in  check.      Lower 
still    further  the  temperature,    and    the  sides  of   the 
tumbler  will  burst  in  pieces,  the  crystalline  force  over- 
coming the  cohesive.     Eaise  the  temperature,  and  the 
water  will  change  to  steam,  and  a  repellence  between  the 
particles  will  appear,  the  heat  driving  them  asunder, 
despite  all  that  cohesion  and  gravitation  can  do. 

Over  the  world  outside  the  body,  the  control  of 
our  wills,  though  mostly  indirect,  is  equally  potent, 
and  yet  nature  is  not  thrown  into  confusion,  not  a  single 
force  destroyed,  not  a  law  abrogated.  Our  volitions  are 
simply  supernatural,  not  contranatural.  Our  wills  act 
indirectly  by  complying  with  the  conditions  that  un- 
fetter nature's  forces.  The  scientists  have  established 
beyond  question  the  fact  that  there  is  not  a  single  one  of 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB.  13 

these  forces  that  is  not  wholly  inoperative  unless  certain 
conditions  are  fulfilled,  and  just  as  soon  as  they  are,  the 
force  begins  to  work  its  wonders.  Scientists  have  even 
gone  further,  discovering  in  very  many  instances  pre- 
cisely what  those  conditions  are,  and  thus  placed  it 
within  our  reach  to  utilize  those  forces  in  the  arts  of 
life. 

Back  of  our  will  power,  acting  as  its  guide,  there  now 
exists,  thanks  to  these  explorers,  a  well-informed  intelli- 
gence, and  we  have  become  masters  of  nature  by  simply 
understanding  and  complying  with  her  laws.  For  in- 
stance, we  want  homes  for  ourselves  and  our  little  ones, 
and  so  we  cast  about  and  fijid  abundance  of  crude 
material, — sand  and  clay,  metal  and  slate,  rock  and 
standing  trees  and  running  water.  Our  wills  decree 
that  these  shall  be  transformed  into  cemented  walls 
of  brick  and  stone,  framed  timbers,  tessellated  floors, 
frescoed  ceilings,  plate -glass  windows,  roofs  and  mantels, 
furnaces  and  swinging  doors,  and  step  by  step,  under 
the  quickening  power  of  the  mind,  the  wondrous  change 
is  wrought.  We  even  make  our  wills  felt  in  the 
domains  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  improving  old 
varieties  and  developing  new  ones  among  fruits  and 
flowers  and  domesticated  animals,  enriching  and  seeding 
our  soils,  and  multiplying  our  flocks  and  herds  to  meet 
our  ever-growing  wants. 

The  processes  by  which  our  wills  enforce  their  decrees 
may  be  a  little  tedious,  but  the  ends  are  reached,  the 


14  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

course  of  nature  is  seriously  broken  in  upon,  results 
attained  which  otherwise  nature  never  would  have 
attempted,  yet  no  disorder  has  anywhere  ensued.  What 
marvelous  effects  have  been  produced  by  this  intelli- 
gent will  power  of  man,  cunningly  directing  to  its  own 
uses  the  ever- waiting  elemental  and  vital  forces  !  How 
many  rivers  have  been  bridged,  beds  of  rivers  shifted  or 
tunneled,  mountains  discrowned  or  their  rocky  centers 
pierced  to  open  highways  for  the  world's  commerce ! 
The  very  lightnings  have  been  tamed  into  flying 
Mercurys  to  carry  the  thought-messages  of  this  busy- 
brained  master,  the  oceans  whitened  with  his  sail,  the 
continents  covered  with  his  networks  of  railways  and 
canals,  barren  wastes  changed  into  vineyards  and  palm- 
groves  and  orange- orchards,  the  unshapely  quarries  of 
granite  and  of  marble  transformed  into  palaces  and 
statue-crowned  temples  to  body  forth  his  ripest  culture 
and  most  holy  thought. 

The  influence  of  the  human  will  has  had  even  a  wider 
circuit  assigned  it.  Many  of  us  have  known  instances  of 
weak  wills  being  overawed  by  stronger  ones,  and  the 
domination  being  so  absolute  as  for  the  time  being  to 
actually  blot  out  every  distinctive  trace  of  personality 
and  suspend  individual  responsibility.  Not  one  of  us 
but  has  felt,  time  and  again,  the  indirect  power  of 
another's  will  reaching  us  through  channels  of  argu- 
ment, persuasive  kindling  of  the  fancy,  eloquent  appeal, 
shrewd  suggestion,  or  show  of  appreciative  sympathy. 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  15 

There  are  a  thousand  avenues  to  the  heart,  a  thousand 
ways  to  arouse  the  conscience,  inflame  passion,  fill  the 
chambers  of  the  soul  with  dread  alarms,  and  these 
are  discovered  and  utilized  by  positive  and  aggressive 
souls  athirst  for  wealth,  power,  or  prestige.  Society  has 
its  born  leaders.  Individuality  and  responsible  free 
choice  are  with  the  vast  majority  still  retained,  but  it  is 
through  these  multiform  influences  of  personal  character 
that  the  life  of  the  world's  subtile  social  organism  is, 
under  pre-established  spiritual  laws,  regulated  and 
maintained. 

Thus  we  see  that  to  the  touch  of  the  human  will 
all  nature  is  plastic,  that  every  facility  has  seemingly 
been  provided  for  its  efficient  interference.  Think 
you  that,  in  a  world  where  so  many  doors  have  been 
so  invitingly  left  open  for  the  will  of  the  creature 
to  enter  and  occupy,  the  will  of  the  Creator  has  been 
studiously  excluded  %  Can  science,  which  has  so  conclu- 
sively proved  the  one,  consistently  deny  the  other? 
Is  it  not  rather  forced  to  assert  that,  so  far  as  God's  will 
has  greater  innate  power  and  is  guided  by  a  profounder 
knowledge,  it  has  proportionately  greater  facilities  for 
effecting  its  purposes  and,  at  the  same  time,  leaving 
every  force  and  law  both  in  the  material  and  mental 
kingdoms  equally  undisturbed? 

Before  the  birth  of  science  a  radical  misconception  of 
the  true  nature  of  miracles  was  entertained,  and  seems 
still  very  generally  to  prevail,  and  this  has  doubtless 


16  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

largely  provoked  the  attacks  made  on  the  truthfulness  of 
the  Bible  record.  Cannot  the  miracle-workings  spoken 
of  have  been  wrought  by  acts  of  divine  will  precisely 
analogous  to  those  of  the  human?  What  necessity  is 
there  for  thinking  that  any  force  or  law  has  been,  or 
need  be,  destroyed?  The  ax  that  was  made  to  float 
on  the  water  by  God's  command  through  his  prophet 
was  not  necessarily  made  lighter  than  the  water  any 
more  than  my  hand  when  I  raise  it  is  made  lighter 
than  the  air.  The  nature  of  the  materials  remained  the 
same,  and  gravity  was  still  in  full  force,  but  God's 
will  was  under  the  axe  as  mine  is  under  the  hand.  Pre- 
cisely how  it  got  there  I  cannot  explain,  neither  can 
I  how  mine  got  under  the  hand.  The  one  is  no  more 
mysterious  than  the  other,  no  more  of  a  deviation 
from  nature's  laws,  but  both  volitions  are,  as  far  as 
I  can  discover,  essentially  the  same. 

There  perhaps  is  no  Bible  narrative  whose  truth 
has  been  more  violently  and  generally  assailed  than  that 
of  the  sun's  being  stayed  upon  Gibeon  and  the  moon 
in  the  valley  of  Aijalon.  It  has  been  pronounced  scien- 
tifically impossible.  Some  authors  have  attempted  to 
explain  it  by  claiming  that  it  is  only  a  quotation  from 
the  Book  of  Jasher,  a  mere  poetical  extravaganza 
embellished  by  that  warmth  of  imagery  characteristic  of 
Oriental  writings.  But  such  a  defense  is  not  called  for. 
The  Christian  believer  may  confidently  challenge  the 
scientist  to  show  just  cause  for  discrediting  the  state- 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  17 

ment.  Indeed  the  late  Professor  O.  M.  Mitchell  did  not 
hesitate  to  assert  that  the  rotary  motion  of  the  earth 
could  be  completely  arrested  in  a  few  minutes  without  a 
single  thing  upon  it  being  disturbed,  and  the  arrest 
of  this  one  motion  was  all  that  was  required  to  effect 
the  phenomenon.  It  would  not  have  changed  the 
earth's  positioii  in  the  heavens  or  its  relations  with  its 
satellite,  its  sister  planets,  or  its  central  sun.  If  the 
scientist  can  by  his  own  will-power  put  out  his  hand  and 
check  the  spinning  of  a  top,  what  reason  has  he  for 
thinking  that  God's  will  cannot  check  the  whirl  of  a 
world?  Has  he  any  evidence  that  his  will  is  more 
closely  linked  with  matter  than  God's!  The  same 
eminent  authority  also  pointed  out  that,  if  he  had 
chosen,  God  could  have  lengthened  the  day  by  simply 
condensing  the  atmosphere  and  thus  changing  its  power 
of  refraction.  Whether  he  actually  adopted  either  of 
these  methods  or  used  a  better  we  with  our  yet  ex- 
tremely meagre  knowledge  of  nature  have  of  course 
no  means  of  determining,  but  we  can  see  even  now  how 
such  an  end  was  within  the  ready  reach  of  a  will 
as  masterful  and  as  wise  as  we  are  warranted  in 
believing  God's  to  be. 

The  miracles  of  replenishing  the  widow's  cruse  of  oil, 
turning  the  water  to  wine,  feeding  the  five  thousand 
with  the  five  loaves  and  few  fishes,  though  they  involve 
something  more  than  simply  the  overmastering  of  one 
force  by  another,  as  in  the  incident  just  cited,  and  are  at 


18  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

first  more  difidcult  of  apprehension  and  belief,  and 
lie  more  exposed  to  the  adverse  criticism  of  scientists, 
yet,  after  a  careful  scrutiny,  will  be  found,  after  all, 
remarkably  analogous  in  many  respects  to  achievements 
of  the  human  will,  and  no  more  contranatural,  or 
improbable,  or  wrapped  in  a  profounder  mystery. 
There  is  no  necessity  for  thinking  that  in  these  or 
kindred  acts  any  new  matter  or  force  was  brought 
into  existence.  The  oil  and  the  wine,  the  miraculously 
provided  cakes  and  fishes,  differed  in  no  respect  in  their 
elemental  atoms,  or  in  the  combinations  of  these  atoms, 
from  products  which  nature,  assisted  and  guided  by 
man,  had  for  centuries  before  been  manufacturing. 
There  was  no  call  for  any  new  matter,  as  it  was 
already  at  hand  in  vast  abundance.  Christians  need  not 
claim  this.  Indeed,  neither  need  they  claim  that,  when, 
as  it  is  recorded,  in  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heavens'  and  the  earth,  he  brought  forth  something 
out  of  nothing,  as  too  many  unthinkingly  believe. 
Scientists  may  well  pronounce  such  a  notion  absurb. 
An  achievement  like  that  would  transcend  even 
divine  power,  for  it  involves  a  contradiction,  an  im- 
possibility. Something  cannot  come  out  of  nothing.  It 
is  nowhere  revealed  that  there  ever  was  a  time  when 
matter  did  not  exist.  The  beginning  spoken  of  in 
Genesis  need  have  reference  only  to  the  present  order  of 
things,  the  present  processes  of  evolution  through  which 
the  burning  and  non-burning    balls    of   matter  have 


SCIENCE  AND  PMA  YER.  19 

been  made  to  people  space.  Although  this  history  may 
reach  back  over  what  to  us  are  inconceivable  periods, 
yet  there  unquestionably  was  a  time  when  not  a  single 
sun  or  satellite  anywhere  existed,  when  matter  must 
have  been  in  some  other  radically  different  form. 
Further  than  this  we  need  not  go.  If  it  was  not  origin- 
ally a  part  of  God,  and  is  not  now  to  be  considered  as  an 
emanation  from  him,  it  must  in  our  thought  take  rank  as 
an  equally  self-existent  and  eternal  entity.  The  fact  is, 
the  more  prolonged  and  profound  our  study  into  its 
nature,  the  more  impenetrable  appears  the  mystery  that 
shrouds  it,  for  at  first  we  can  little  realize  that  the 
substance  we  see  and  taste  and  handle  is  revealed  to 
us  simply  by  the  effect  produced  upon  our  sense- nerves 
by  forces  that  lie  hidden  behind  it,  so  that  we,  when 
further  advanced  in  our  reflections,  are  led  to  query 
whether,  after  all,  it  is  not  the  presence  oi force  that  is  re- 
vealed to  our  consciousness  rather  than  that  of  matter  as 
the  medium  of  force,  and  whether  it  is  not  of  the  existence 
simply  of  force  that  we  have  any  certain  knowledge. 

As  I  have  said,  we  need  not  infer  that  in  these 
miracle-workings  any  new  substance  was  brought  into 
being,  but  only  new  methods  adopted,  or  hitherto  un- 
used forces  liberated,  or  greater  direct  power  employed 
by  a  sovereign  will  in  carrying  out  its  decrees.  The 
human  will  had  before  this  accomplished  the  same  ends 
in  other  ways,  for  how  else  can  we  explain  the  presence 
of  the  oil  which  the  prophet  found  in  the  widow's  cruse, 


20  SCIENCE  AND  PBA  YEJR, 

or  the  wine  already  drunk  at  the  wedding  feast,  or  the 
bread  and  fish  in  the  baskets  of  Christ's  disciples  before 
he  miraculously  multiplied  them  !     But  the  human  will 
had  been  compelled  to  resort  to  tedious  and,  for  the 
most  part,   indirect   methods  to   accomplish  what  the 
divine  will  wrought  without  delay,  and  apparently  by 
direct  impressment.     I  say  ^'apparently,"  for  it  is  quite 
possible  that  the  methods  employed  were  still  indirect, 
though  not  accompanied  with  any  noticeable  delay.   We 
ourselves  are  continually  shortening  the  processes  we 
employ  in  carrying  out  our  purposes.     By  a  more  per- 
fect knowledge  of  nature's  laws  we  become  more  com- 
plete masters  of  her  forces.     What  giant  strides  have 
we  already  made  in  this  direction,  especially  during  this 
nineteenth  century  !     It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  the 
nature  and  extent  of  our  recent  victories  over  matter. 
With  what  blank  amazement  would  Washington  and  his 
companions  be  filled  were  they  now,  without  knowing 
what  had  taken  place,   to  return  to  the  country  they 
fought  to  save  !     For  since  Washington  closed  his  eyes 
to  earth,  there  have  come  the  steamship,  the  locomotive, 
the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  phonograph,  and  thou- 
sands of  shortening  processes.     In   his   day,   yes  and 
forty  years  later,  to  cross  the  American  continent  was  a 
task  of  many  weary  months.     Now  we  make  the  trip  in 
less  than  a  week.    The  news  of  Waterloo  was  three  days 
reaching  England,  but  the  tidings  of  the  last  bombard- 
ment of  Alexandria,  though  halfway  round  the  globe, 


SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YER.  21 

took  only  as  many  minutes.  The  thunder  of  the  first 
gun  had  hardly  died  away  along  the  banks  of  the  Kile 
before  the  air  was  throbbing  with  its  echo  on  the  banks 
of  the  Thames.  We  have  also  of  late,  through  our 
telephones,  succeeded  in  holding  easy  converse  with 
each  other,  though  separated  by  leagues  of  distance, 
even  in  actually  distinguishing  the  peculiar  intonations 
of  each  other's  voices.  At  what  time  these  discoveries 
of  new  forces  and  how  to  unfetter  them  shall  reach  their 
limit,  who  would  be  bold  enough  to  predict?  and  yet 
not  until  science  has  won  its  final  triumph  over  nature 
should  devotees  of  science  be  unwilling  to  concede  that 
it  is  clearly  possible  that  Bible  miracles  were  the  work 
of  Nature's  forces  simply  guided  by  a  will  thoroughly 
conversant  with  Nature's  laws,  which  were  within  the 
reach  of  the  directive  power  of  the  will  of  a  man  if 
illumined  by  the  insight  of  a  God.  But  even  if  these 
miracles  were  performed  by  direct  will-power,  still  we 
can  point  to  constantly  recurring  instances  in  which 
precisely  analogous  effects  are  produced  both  in  the 
vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  as  well  as  in  the  higher 
realm  of  the  human  will.  Scientific  treatises  call  our 
attention  not  only  to  an  inorganic,  but  also  to  an 
organic,  chemistry,  and  assure  us  that  the  vital  forces, 
working  through  complex  animal  and  vegetable  organ- 
isms, effect  combinations  of  elements  which  outside 
of  their  laboratories  or  the  laboratories  of  man  are 
never  produced,  and  are  marked  by  extreme  instability, 


22  SCIENCE  AND  FRA  YER. 

readily  decomposing  under  the  influence  of  heat  or 
fermentation,  so  soon  as  their  influence  is  withdrawn. 
Those  mysterious  forces  lodged  inside  the  walls  of  seeds 
prove  themselves  the  masters  of  other  forces  equally 
mysterious  lodged  inside  the  walls  of  atoms.  Carbon, 
hydrogen,  oxygen,  and  nitrogen  never  would  have  con- 
gregated into  such  chemical  groups,  or  arranged  them- 
selves along  such  lines  of  symmetry,  or  climbed  to  such 
dizzy  heights,  directly  against  the  steady  pull  of  gravity, 
were  they  not  working  under  compulsion  ;  and  so  soon 
as  they  escape  from  the  thrall  of  their  taskmasters, 
their  old  individuality  comes  back  to  them,  their  old 
modes  of  combining,  their  old  circles  of  association 
return,  and  the  unstable  organic  compounds  are  torn 
down  into  the  more  stable,  original,  inorganic  ones. 
Here  we  witness  one  great  class  of  Nature's  forces — the 
atomic — lorded  over  for  a  time  by  another  and  superior 
class.  As  we  are  daily  witnesses  of  these  facts,  we 
never  think  of  questioning  them. 

Further  than  that,  we  see  the  products  of  vegetive- 
vital  forces  taken  possession  of  by  animal- vital,  and 
grouped  into  still  more  strange  and  higher  compounds, 
and  the  chemic  compelled  to  play  a  part  still  more 
foreign  to  their  first  estate.  We  know  that  this,  too,  is 
a  case  of  compulsion,  for  the  very  moment  vitality 
ceases,  disintegration  begins.  These  nitrogenous  combi- 
nations are  the  very  embodiment  of  instability. 

We  are  daily  witnesses  of  more  startling  wonders  still. 


SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YEB,  23 

They  form  part  of  our  personal  experiences.  We  find 
that  we  can  by  sheer  will-power  compel  even  these 
higher  forces  of  animal  vitality,  and  through  them  the 
lower,  to  do  our  bidding.  The  late  Dr.  Carpenter, 
the  foremost  physiologist  of  his  day,  called  especial 
attention  to  this  fact,  asserting  that  thus  we  can  greatly 
add  to  the  acuteness  of  any  of  our  bodily  senses,  can 
actually  compel  the  nourishing  blood  to  flow  to  any  part 
of  the  system  and  infuse  new  vigor.  The  experiences 
of  artisans  and  artists,  astronomers  and  microscopists, 
experts  and  specialists  in  every  class  of  work,  deaf- 
mutes  and  the  blind,  abundantly  confirm  this.  There 
are  few  of  us  who  have  not  found  by  actual  experience 
that  by  calling  up  certain  thoughts  we  can  turn  the 
cheek  pale  or  crimson  it  with  blushes,  flood  the  eyes 
with  tears  or  make  them  merrily  twinkle  or  flash  with 
angry  fire,  cause  the  heart  to  violently  throb  or  intermit 
its  beats,  throw  the  blood  to  the  brain,  make  the  knees 
quake,  the  skin  perspire,  the  whole  body  tremble  with 
intensity  of  emotion.  The  control  which  persons  of 
cultivated  histrionic  powers  have  over  the  body  to 
make  it  the  vehicle  of  thought  can  be  appreciated  only 
by  those  who  have  witnessed  the  masters  as  they  have 
entranced  their  audiences,  and  who  have  themselves 
been  thrilled  and  spirit-bound  under  the  spell  of  their 
enchantments. 

If  the  vegetative  forces  can  thus  dominate  over  the 
atomic,  the  animal  over  the  vegetative,  and  the  will  of 


24  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

man  over  all,  what  valid  objection  can  science  urge 
to  the  Christian's  creed  that  God's  will  can  by  direct 
impressment  effect  combinations  in  the  elements  which 
Nature's  forces  indirectly  and  uncompelled  bring  about 
by  slower  processes  according  to  the  terms  of  their 
divine  commission?  Why  may  not  God's  will  have 
as  immediate  and  complete  a  sovereignty  over  the  earth 
or  the  universe,  as  we  over  these  complicate  bodies 
of  ours,  which  our  spirits  permeate  through  and 
through  by  their  informing  presence  ?  And  why  may 
not  his  sovereignty  be  inconceivably  more  immediate 
and  complete,  and  still  retain  in  its  relationships  its 
marked  analogy  to  the  characteristics  of  force  which 
science  has  herself  recorded  ?  Why  may  not  the  divine 
will  not  only  make  bread,  wine,  and  fish  directly  out  of 
the  surrounding  elements,  but  heal  lepers,  restore  the 
blind,  or  even  raise  the  dead,  and  still  do  no  more 
violence  to  Nature's  systems  of  law  than  the  human  will 
is  doing  every  day?  There  are  multitudes  of  well- 
authenticated  instances  in  which  persons  have  by  simple 
determination  checked  for  considerable  periods  the 
inroads  of  disease  and  even  permanently  broken  its 
power.  So  startling  have  been  the  effects  of  the  will 
and  of  the  imagination  over  these  susceptible  bodies, 
there  have  arisen  schools  of  theorists  which  advocate 
that  what  have  hitherto  been  pronounced  incurable  dis- 
eases may  be  made  to  yield  to  the  modern  mind -cure 
treatment.     They  have  doubtless  overrated  the  will's 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  2& 

curative  energy,  but  they  certainly  have  made  no 
mistake,  except  in  the  extent  to  which  such  cure  can  be 
carried.  Sudden  fright,  worriment  in  financial  difficul- 
ties, brooding  over  loss  of  friends,  remorse,  chagrin,  dis- 
couragement, loneliness,  and  longing, — all  have  their 
depressing  effect  on  the  body,  and  if  not  checked  in 
time  will  lead  to  serious  illness,  if  not  to  positive  brain 
lesion.  Glad  surprise,  large  and  unlooked-for  success, 
the  return  of  long  absent  loved  ones,  their  rescue  from 
danger  or  illness,  appreciative  sympathetic  recognition 
of  merit,  fruition  of  long- deferred  hopes,  the  stir  of 
patriotic  or  religious  fervor, — all  have  their  medicinal 
influence,  their  exhilarating,  uplifting  power.  Thoughts 
sudden  and  startling  have  often  brought  sickness  or 
banished  it,  brought  death  even  in  the  midst  of  healthful 
life,  or  lengthened  life's  lease  for  those  apparently 
passing  within  the  shadow.  If  impalpable  thought  is 
clothed  with  such  recuperative  and  destructive  power, 
and  if  between  the  Creator  and  his  creatures  there 
are  open  avenues  of  communication  as  there  evidently 
must  be, — avenues  more  open  and  numerous  than  be- 
tween man  and  man, — what  valid  objection  can  be  urged 
to  the  belief  that  God,  with  his  infinitude  of  knowledge 
of  the  structure  of  the  human  frame  and  the  laws 
regulating  its  processes,  and  with  his  intimate  and 
accurate  acquaintance  with  its  ever-varying  environ- 
ment, can  by  turning  the  currents  of  thought  by 
means  of  timely  suggestions,  by  firing  the  fancy,  rousing 


26  SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YER. 

the  conscience,  raising  the  hope,  occasioning  and  con- 
firming the  purpose,  and,  by  the  even  more  mighty 
magnetism  of  such  positive  and  such  sympathetic  per- 
sonality as  his  must  be,  summon  health  or  sickness, 
life  or  death,  when  and  where  he  chooses? 

Thus  the  Christian's  creed  that  God  can  answer 
prayer  if  he  so  desires,  if  in  his  wisdom  it  seems  best, 
that  there  are  multitudinous  ways  in  which  he  may 
indirectly  or  directly  carry  out  the  mandates  of  his 
will  without  destroying  any  force  or  abrogating  any  law, 
finds  in  the  discoveries  of  modern  science  most  abundant 
confirmatory  and  illustrative  facts.  It  is  only  in  the  ill- 
founded  theories  and  misinterpretations  of  some  of  the 
devotees  of  science  that  its  claims  have  been  denied. 
Christianity  will  some  day  summon  science  to  the  bar  of 
the  world's  judgment  as  her  strongest  witness  and  most 
helpful  ally. 


II. 

But,  query  our  doubting  Thomases,  suppose  you 
can  thus  show  that  scientific  discoveries  warrant  a  belief 
in  the  possibility  of  God's  effectively  interfering  in 
the  course  of  nature  and  in  the  affairs  of  men,  have  they 
not  also  suggested  and  finally  confirmed  the  opinion 
that,  in  point  of  fact,  he  never  has  ;  that,  from  the  very 
first,  matter  contained  the  promise  and  the  potency 
of  aU  life  ;  that  the  world  is  simply  an  immense  organ- 
ism which  has  reached  its  present  complex  perfectness 
through  inherent  forces  working  under  fixed  laws  of  evo- 
lution ;  that  the  stages  of  its  growth  have  been  as  regular 
and  predetermined  as  those  of  a  tree  f  that  its  social 
amenities,  its  arts  and  literatures,  its  ripened  civiliza- 
tions, have  finally  evolved  out  of  the  original  amorphic 
fire-mist  through  precisely  the  same  regular  gradations 
of  growth  as  those  out  of  which  the  rich  grape- cluster  or 
the  golden-sphered  russet  has  come  to  crown  the  long  en- 
ergizings  of  the  germ-force  that  at  the  first  lay  hidden 
within  the  walls  of  the  seed  ?  We  return  to  this  query  a 
most  decided  negative  answer,  and  will  endeavor  to 
establish,  as  the  second  point  in  our  present  argument, 

27 


28  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

that  God  has  actually  interfered  again  and  again  5  that 
his  interferences  have  not  been  confined  to  any  one  age, 
but  have  been  present  in  all  ages  j  that  his  will,  by 
its  creating  and  modifying  power,  has  extended  to  all 
classes  of  phenomena  ;  that  his  mandates  are  still  being 
issued  ;  and  that  their  results,  as  asserted  by  recognized 
leaders  in  philosophy  and  in  science,  are  present  with  us 
to-day. 

At  the  first,  matter  was  formless,  motionless,  forceless, 
structureless,  rayless.  On  this  there  is  now  no  con- 
troversy among  the  different  schools  of  thought.  Moses 
and  Herbert  Spencer,  the  creationist  and  the  evolution- 
ist, the  dates  of  whose  writing  are  separated  by  three 
thousand  years,  on  this  point  clasp  hands. 

The  belief  is  also  as  universal  that  this  absolute 
simplicity  of  form  and  of  nature  has,  after  the  lapse 
of  ages,  been  converted  into  an  almost  infinite  com- 
plexity, and  that  the  cardinal  changes  have  occurred 
in  a  certain  order  of  sequence  ;  but  in  answering  the 
question  as  to  how  these  changes  have  been  effected, 
these  schools  of  thought  at  once  part  company. 

Those  who  afi&rm  that  in  this  unfolding  there  are 
no  evidences  of  the  active  presence  of  an  intelligent 
personal  will-power  are  confronted  by  seemingly  in- 
superable objections  which  science  itself  has  furnished. 
Science  discloses  a  law  of  inertia  so  far-reaching  that  not 
a  single  particle  of  matter  in  all  the  wide  universe 
can  set  itself  in  motion.     It  also  discloses  that  there 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER,  29 

is  not  a  single  particle  that  is  now  at  rest.  Whence  that 
mighty  initial  impulse  that  thrilled  through  space  and  is 
still  felt  after  the  lapse  of  untold  ages  peopling  the 
heavens  with  whirling  worlds?  Science  also  discloses 
that  matter  is  made  up  of  sixty-four  or  more  different 
kinds  of  atoms,  each  inclosing  within  its  walls,  as  we 
have  already  remarked,  a  force  peculiar  to  itself,  work- 
ing under  absolutely  fixed  conditions  which  no  skilled 
chemist  has  ever  succeeded  in  dislodging,  or  destroying, 
or  changing  in  the  minutest  particular  ;  each  having  all 
the  characteristics  of  a  manufactured  article  as  affirmed 
by  Herschel,  Faraday,  and  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  removed 
completely  beyond  the  reach  of  nature^ s  power  or  man's 
device  to  make  or  mar,  alter  or  destroy.  Out  of  these, 
through  their  mathematically  exact  chemical  combina- 
tions, the  whole  inorganic  world  has  been  built.  If 
there  was  once  a  time,  as  every  evolutionist  not  only 
concedes,  but  stoutly  contends,  when  every  atom  was 
precisely  like  every  other,  and  not  a  single  one  had 
the  faintest  touch  of  attractive  or  repellent  or  affinitive 
force,  through  what  instrumentality  in  some  far  past  did 
these  elemental  forces,  these  individualized  somethings, 
find  birth  and  an  abiding  place  within  infinitesimal 
and  indestructible  walls  of  matter?  We  find  on  them 
no  traces  of  development  and  no  marks  of  decay.  They 
are  none  other  than  God's  immortals.  Over  the  nature 
of  their  being,  as  well  as  over  the  cradle  of  their  birth, 
there  has  been  thrown  a  veil  of  mystery  through  whose 


30  SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YER. 

closely  woven  meshes  there  comes  no  ray  of  revealing 
light  to  the  anxiously  peering  eyes  of  science,  and  whose 
hiding  folds  no  hand  on  earth  has  power  to  lift,  except 
the  reverent  hand  of  faith. 

Skilled  specialists,  after  repeated  trials  to  demonstrate 
that  vitality  may  spring  through  spontaneous  generation 
from  dead  matter,  now  candidly  confess  that  all  their 
efforts  have  thus  far  proved  unavailing.  Dr.  Bastian 
with  tireless  zeal  has  worked  to  this  end,  and  thought  he 
reached  it,  but  in  every  one  of  his  experiments  there 
has  been  detected  some  fatal  flaw.  The  declaration  that 
no  life  springs  except  from  some  living  germ  has 
stood  the  crucial  test  of  the  science  of  this  nineteenth 
century.  The  lamented  Agassiz  affirmed  this  in  his  last 
lecture.  Carpenter,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  all  the  leading 
scientists,  with  refreshing  candor,  reaffirm  it  to-day. 

With  equal  unanimity  the  world's  savants  point  us 
to  a  fire  period  during  which  not  only  all  the  oceans  and 
the  soils,  but  the  very  beds  of  oceans,  all  the  mines  of 
metal  and  quarries  of  rock  that  form  the  earth,  were 
once  but  drifting  clouds  of  burning  ether  in  whose 
fierce  heat  the  hardiest  germ  would  instantly  shrivel 
and  disintegrate.  Whence,  then,  those  first  eggs  out  of 
which  sprang  the  progenitors  of  those  countless  multi- 
tudes of  living  organisms  that  have  from  age  to  age  so 
peopled  our  planet  f 

The  secret  of  the  ^gg,  its  nature  and  its  origin,  quite 
as  seriously  puzzles  and  confounds  the  evolutionist  as 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  31 

does  that  of  the  elemental  atom.  Within  its  walls  there 
hides  a  wonder-working  fairy.  Though  not  secure  from 
intrusion,  as  is  the  oxygen  or  the  carbon  force,  she 
as  successfully  eludes  the  prying  eyes  of  mortals  and  is 
wrapped  in  as  deep  a  mystery  as  to  what  she  is  or 
whence  she  came.  With  the  lenses  and  mirrors  of  his 
microscope,  the  scientist  tries  to  look  through  the 
curtained  windows  of  her  palace.  Baffled  in  that  he 
presumes  with  subtile  chemistry  to  bolt  unbidden  into 
her  very  presence,  but  the  sprite,  warned  by  the  first 
footfall  of  the  intruder,  passes  with  viewless  feet 
through  some  secret  postern  gate  out  into  the  unknown 
beyond,  and  never  comes  back  again.  After  this  he 
compounds  in  his  laboratory  the  like  chemical  ingredi- 
ents of  which  he  has  found  the  e>gg  composed,  and  in 
precisely  the  same  proportions,  and  then  exposes  this, 
his  skillfully  built  protoplasm,  to  a  carefully  adjusted 
heat.  Weeks  pass,  but  no  life.  For  a  third  time  he 
finds  himself  facing  failure.  At  last,  with  humbled 
pride,  he  accepts  the  truth  that  germinal  force  is  not 
some  property  inherent  in  matter,  but  rather  an  organ- 
izing impulse  introduced  from  without,  separable  at  any 
time  from  the  mass  over  which  for  a  season  it  is  made 
dominant,  the  product  of  a  personal  creative  will  whose 
impalpable  thought  it  is  commissioned  to  incarnate  into 
living  form. 

Again,  between  not  only  the  four  primordial  divisions 
of  the  animal  kingdom  and  also  the  classes,  orders,  and 


32  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

genera,  but  even  the  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
different  species,  it  has  been  demonstrated,  after  a  cen- 
tury of  most  painstaking  exploration  and  experiment, 
there  have  been  great  gulfs  fixed  which  no  natural, 
delegated  force  has  power  to  pass.  Within  certain 
lines  it  has  been  discovered  that  species  can  be  modified 
into  varieties  through  climatic  or  dietetic  influences 
or  cross-breeding,  but  changes  thus  effected  are  found 
quite  unstable,  the  parental  types  reappearing  through 
the  law  of  atavism  when  in  new  surroundings  or 
removed  from  the  culturing  care  of  man.  But,  how- 
ever, when  an  attempt  is  made  to  develop  absolutely 
new,  distinct  species  out  of  old  ones,  naturalists 
encounter  in  the  law  of  the  sterility  of  hybrids  an 
uplifted  iron  hand,  and  hear  a  stern  voice,  saying, 
'^Thus  far,  but  no  farther."  That  voice  they  are 
rapidly  learning  to  recognize  as  the  commanding  voice 
of  God. 

The  origin  of  bodily  organs  is  another  of  nature's 
many  secrets  to  which  evolution  theories  furnish  no  key. 
These  organs  are  found  on  examination  to  be  contriv- 
ances of  the  most  complicated  character,  combining 
often  into  a  single  group  hundreds  of  closely  correlated 
parts  so  nicely  adjusted,  so  absolutely  interdependent  in 
many  instances,  that  the  absence  of  any  one  would 
not  only  seriously  cripple  the  others,  but  render  them 
totally  inoperative,  hopelessly  defeating  the  purpose  of 
the  mechanism.     These  parts  being  thus  unquestionably 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  33 

complemental  one  to  the  other  and  incapable  of  per- 
forming any  useful  office  unless  combined,  their  origin 
and  present  combination  can  be  accounted  for  only 
as  a  projection  into  physical  fact  of  an  ideal  previously 
conceived  and  matured  by  some  organizing  mind.  It 
seems  absurd  to  suppose  that  each  part  could  have  been 
originated  independently,  without  any  reference  to 
the  others,  and  slowly  developed,  in  its  own  time  and 
way,  out  of  some  minute,  indefinite,  fortuitous  varia- 
tions, either  through  the  influence  of  its  environment  or 
through  some  internal  blind  force,  into  its  present 
perfected  and  permanent  form,  and  then  that  they 
all,  through  some  chance  circumstance,  should  have 
fallen  into  each  other's  company,  and  have  proved  so 
exactly  suited  and  so  absolutely  essential  each  to  each  as 
to  become  at  last  thus  inseparably  associated  in  close 
corporate  work. 

Exploring  parties  of  geologists,  naturalists,  and  anato- 
mists, after  having  with  inexhaustible  patience,  with 
trained  powers  of  observation,  with  most  ingenious 
instruments  of  research,  ransacked  the  rock  record  of 
earth's  crust  down  through  even  the  Silurian  strata 
to  the  very  dawn  of  being,  and  having  examined  the 
present  occupants  of  every  continent  and  sea,  now 
testify  in  the  name  of  science  that  nowhere  among 
extinct  species  or  living  ones  have  there  come  to  light 
any  facts  proving  that  there  ever  were  any  such  proc- 
esses as  evolutionists  so  boldly  announce  to  have  taken 


34  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

place  in  introducing  the  different  gradations  of  sentient 
life  on  this  planet. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  many  curious  instances  of 
mimicries  in  nature,  and  indeed  of  all  phenomena  of 
correlated  growth. 

Materialistic  expounders  of  the  universe  also  find 
themselves  confronted  on  every  side  by  the  ever  re- 
curring phenomena  of  instinct  and  are  at  their  wits'  end 
to  account  for  that  perfect  poise  and  mastery  of  body  ex- 
hibited by  some  animals  directly  after  birth,  for  that 
accurate  intuitive  knowledge  of  perspective,  that  minute 
familiarity  with  first  witnessed  scenes,  that  unrivaled 
ingenuity  of  design  and  flawless  finish  in  mechanical  ex- 
ecution of  works  performed  without  experience  or  a 
guiding  model  or  the  aid  of  instruction,  that  instantane- 
ous grasp  of  the  most  occult  principles  in  natural 
philosophy  and  profound  acquaintance  with  the  laws 
of  chemical  and  vital  action,  and  especially  that  far 
glance  of  prophecy  on  the  accuracy  of  which  depend  the 
lives  not  only  of  individuals,  but  even  of  entire  species. 
Theorists  who  cling  to  a  naturalistic  explanation  denom- 
inate instinct  a  lapsed  intelligence,  affirming  that  it  is 
the  accumulated  wisdom  of  past  generations  acquired 
through  painful  and  protracted  experience  and  handed 
down  under  the  laws  of  heredity  in  the  form  of  fixed 
habits  and  of  constitutional  mental  bent.  But  scientific 
investigations  in  natural  history  have  brought  to  light 
thousands  of  facts  to  which  such  an  explanation  is 


SCIENCE  AND  PRA  YER.  35 

wholly  inapplicable,  which  fairly  laugh  these  theorists 
down. 

The  spider  that  builds  its  tiny  diving-bell,  anchors 
it  with  strong  cable  to  the  river  bottom,  and  distends  its 
walls  with  air  pressed  from  entangling  meshes  of  web  on 
its  abdomen,  and  then,  with  this,  its  royal  pavilion,  that 
shines  through  the  water  like  a  globe  of  woven  silver, 
rears  with  watchful  wisdom,  amid  seemingly  most  hostile 
surroundings,  its  brood  of  hungry  children,  is  one  out  of 
a  vast  multitude  of  living  witnesses  that  testify  to  a 
direct  divine  informing  of  the  mental  life  below  the 
human,  the  impulsive  promptings  of  instinct  being 
followed  blindly  by  those  creatures  which  stand  thus 
in  imperative  need  of  its  guiding  wisdom.  As  well 
accredit  an  intelligent  self-conscious  purpose  to  those 
particles  of  matter  which,  when  the  time  is  ripe, 
arrange  themselves  with  such  promptness  and  precision 
along  the  lines  of  symmetry  which  form  the  faces  of 
crystals  or  the  exquisite  patterns  of  flowers,  as  to  ascribe 
to  these  lower  orders  of  sentient  being  the  knowledge,  the 
invention,  and  the  prescience  which  their  works  display. 

But  over  the  question  of  the  advent  and  distinctive 
attributes  of  man  the  battle  of  the  schools  has  been  most 
hotly  contested,  calling  into  action  on  both  sides 
every  reserved  force  of  scholarship  and  mental  acumen, 
as  the  issues  at  stake  transcend  every  other,  involving 
not  only  the  foundations  of  theistic  faith,  but  even 
the  very  evidences  of  an  endless  life. 


36  ^SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

The  extensive  scientific  investigations  which  have 
grown  out  of  this  heated  controversy  have  brought 
to  light  a  vast  array  of  most  interesting  and  significant 
facts  to  which  the  extreme  evolutionist  and  the  equally 
extreme  creationist  have  both  gone  for  corroborative 
proofs  of  their  theories,  and  neither  of  them  gone  in 
vain. 

Man  in  his  body,  in  his  instincts,  and  in  his  mental 
traits,  bears  many  very  striking  resemblances  to  the 
brute  tribes,  suggesting  some  closer  tie  than  the  strict 
creationist  is  yet  ready  to  admit ;  although  out  of  the 
lines  of  affinity  with  the  numerous  ape  and  lemuroid 
species  that  are  by  scientists  classed  with  man  in  the 
sub-orders  of  primates,  there  could  be  constructed,  as 
a  distinguished  writer  has  remarked,  '^  only  a  net- work 
and  not  a  ladder."  There  have  also  been  found  in  man 
equally  marked  differences,  suggesting,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  in  effecting  the  changes  there  were  actively 
present  higher  forces  than  mechanical  or  chemical  or 
even  vital,  and  that  there  was  introduced,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  atom  and  the  egg,  an  absolutely  new  ingredient, 
of  which  there  was  no  germ  even,  anywhere  existing. 

In  man  we  miss  the  brute's  great  teeth  and  claws,  we 
note  fewer  instincts,  a  lessened  speed,  a  weakened 
muscle,  a  blunted  sense,  a  back  laid  bare,  a  skin  left 
tender  ;  divergencies  which  would  denote  marked  de- 
generacy were  they  not  most  strangely  accompanied  by  a 
vastly  increased  mass  and  multiplied  convolution  of 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  37 

brain.  Here  appears  that  same  deep  correlation  on 
which  the  parts  of  a  bodily  organ  are  built,  bearing  the 
same  emphatic  testimony  to  the  prior  existence,  the  per- 
sonal presence,  and  the  plastic  power  of  some  intelli- 
gent, organizing  will.  To  be  sure,  there  is  here  no 
change  in  the  material  ingredients.  Neither  is  there 
any,  when  out  of  the  soil  a  flower  unfolds  its  tinted 
petals  and  fills  the  air  with  its  fragrance  ;  but  as  the 
soil,  the  moisture,  and  the  sunlight  have  no  power 
to  thus  combine  into  this  marvel  of  grace  and  color  and 
sweetness  until  the  directive  force  of  some  buried 
germ  thrills  them  with  its  talismanic  touch,  so  neither  in 
the  body  of  the  brute  nor  in  the  nature  of  its  en- 
vironment dwells  there  any  power  known  to  science 
capable  of  producing  such  a  circle  of  complemental 
changes,  physical  and  vital,  as  mark  the  advent  of  man. 
Furthermore,  science  in  its  explorations  in  the  higher 
realm  of  thought  has  brought  to  light  a  class  of  phenom- 
ena so  entirely  novel  as  to  indicate  that  there  has  taken 
place  something  more  than  a  mere  modification  of  the 
four  forces,  mechanic,  atomic,  vital,  and  instinctive, 
which  have  been  successively  set  at  work  in  the  world, 
that  an  absolutely  new  force  has  been  ushered  in,  a  force 
possessing  characteristics  so  fundamentally  different 
from  all  others  that  they  can  in  no  sense  be  regarded 
as  its  progenitors,  and  a  force  not  only  of  a  unique- 
ness so  complete  as  to  thus  preclude  any  suggestion 
of  kinship,   but  of  a  uniqueness  so  peculiar  that  it 


38  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

becomes  a  travesty  on  scientific  interpretation  to  explain 
it  simply  as  an  unfolding  under  the  universal  law  of 
evolution  of  another  one  of  the  hidden,  inherent 
properties  of  matter.  And  this  new  force,  known  as 
a  self-conscious  and  a  responsibly  sovereign  ego,  is 
apparently  the  exclusive  inheritance  of  man,  is  his 
distinctive  feature,  lifts  him  completely  up  out  of  the 
low  plane  of  brute  being. 

In  the  mental  life  below  the  human  there  are 
semblances  of  self-conscious,  deliberative  thought,  of 
moral  discernment  and  of  responsible  free-will ;  and  in- 
stances of  this  nature  are  so  many  and  so  striking, 
the  belief  is  prevalent,  not  only  in  scientific  but  even  in 
religious  circles,  that  we  differ  from  the  brutes  only 
in  having  a  clearer  thought,  a  deeper  discernment,  a 
wider  freedom  ;  but  there  are  now  advanced  investi- 
gators of  the  highest  attainments  and  of  international 
celebrity  who  believe  that  those  semblances  are  wholly 
delusive,  and  that  in  this  mysterious  pantomimic  life 
below  us  there  are  no  really  reliable  evidences  of  the 
presence  of  a  distinctive,  self-conscious,  spiritual  force 
constituting  true  personality.  Animals  unquestionably 
possess  in  common  with  us  blind  instinct,  sensation, 
direct  perception,  association  of  objects  and  ideas, 
automatic  attention,  involuntary  memory,  indeliberate 
volition,  reproductive  imagination,  sympathetic  emotion 
and  emotional  expression.  Nearly,  if  not  quite  all  of 
the  phenomena  of  their  thought-life  can  come  through 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  39 

the  exercise  of  just  these  low  forms  of  mentality  and  do 
not  necessarily  imply  that  they  ever  get  beyond  the 
domain  of  the  senses,  that  they  have  any  abstract, 
deliberative,  introspective  thought,  that  their  conscious- 
ness ever  reaches  up  into  consciousness  of  self.  Their 
mental  states  may  be,  and  probably  are,  simply  passive  ; 
their  memories  and  imaginations  but  prolonging  and 
multiplying  their  sense-perception  through  laws  of 
association  and  suggestion. 

It  is  true  there  are  some  few  phenomena  that  do  not 
seem  susceptible  of  this  explanation,  but  as  we  find 
clearly  within  the  charmed  circle  of  instinct,  where  there 
is  uniformly  nothing  but  blind  obedience  to  a  God- 
given  impulse,  acts  which  to  ordinary  observers  show 
deliberation,  design,  profound  reasoning,  even  moral 
purpose  on  the  part  of  the  animal,  we  naturally  feel 
warranted  in  assuming  that  these  occasional  instances 
met  with  apparently  outside  of  this  circle,  and  indi- 
cating that  animals  at  times  really  enter  within  the 
vestibule,  at  least,  of  self-conscious  life,  are  delusive, 
that  the  real  mental  background  to  these  unvoiced  acts 
may  after  all  be  God's,  and  not  theirs. 

The  belief  that  thus  with  the  advent  of  man  there 
was  introduced  an  entirely  new  force,  a  spiritual,  self- 
conscious,  personal  entity,  seems  to  find  further  warrant 
in  the  fact  that  he  alone  has  ever  manifested  a  desire  or 
shown  a  capacity  for  progress,  intentionally  improving 
on  the  past.      Did  animals  really  have  souls  in  them, 


40  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER, 

did  they  possess  truly  reflective  faculties  like  our  own, 
tlie  developing  influences  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
years,  that  have  one  by  one  rolled  round  since  their  life 
began,  would  have  wrought  in  them  an  advancement  so 
marked  that  their  mental  status  would  long  since  have 
been  placed  beyond  all  controversy. 

That  this  non-progressiveness  is  not  rightly  chargeable 
to  bodily  imperfections  is  clearly  evinced  in  the  wonder- 
workings  of  the  ant,  the  spider,  and  the  bee.  Apes 
have  hands  but  they  have  never  yet  built  a  fire  or  re- 
plenished one,  or  shaped  a  tool. 

This  belief  finds  still  further  warrant  in  the  fact 
that  with  brutes  instinct  reigns ;  with  man,  reason ;  that 
they  have  their  thinking  done  for  them,  he  is  forced 
to  do  his  himself;  that  they  reach  perfection,  without 
effort,  at  a  single  bound  ;  he,  if  at  all,  only  after  repeated 
and  disheartening  failure  ;  that  with  them  the  final  pur- 
pose seems  to  be  simply  to  conserve  the  body,  with  him, 
to  improve  the  mind  ;  that  with  them  the  supplying 
of  physical  wants  brings  unbroken  peace,  a  deep  con- 
tent, the  horizon  of  their  thought  shutting  closely 
down  about  the  now  and  the  near  ;  with  him  there 
is  ever  a  vague  unrest,  an  unsatisfied  longing,  an  in- 
definable dread,  angel- winged  expectancies. 

How  can  we  account  for  God's  pouring  out  such 
wealth  of  inventive  thought  in  care  for  brutes'  bodies 
and  showing  not  the  least  concern,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
for  preserving  and  developing  anything  nobler,  except 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  41 

on  the  ground  that  he  has  planted  in  them  no  germs 
of  anything  nobler  to  be  developed,  that  he  has 
never  given  them  any  real,  personal  self  to  be  conscious 
of,  that  with  them  body  is  absolutely  the  very  top  of 
being  ? 

While  then  there  are  strong  suggestions,  if  not  posi- 
tive evidences  in  nature  of  some  mysterious  relationship 
between  men  and  brutes,  that  relationship  is  certainly, 
as  I  have  already  suggested,  as  remote  as  that  exist- 
ing between  the  flower  and  the  soil  out  of  which  it 
springs.  The  dull  clod  has  no  magic  gift  of  self- 
transfiguration  but  displays  merely  a  capacity  for  a 
passive  yielding  to  the  plastic  touch  of  some  newly 
arrived  vital  force,  when  out  of  its  well-nigh  shape- 
less, scentless,  colorless  dust  are  wrought  the  queenly 
robes  and  peerless  perfume  and  richly  crimson  blush 
of  roses. 

The  investigations  of  science  bring  the  certain  knowl- 
edge of  the  direct  action  of  the  divine  will  still  closer 
to  us,  even  within  the  circle  of  our  own  individual 
experiences.  Sir  George  Mivart,  Fellow  of  the  Eoyal 
Society,  who  stands  in  the  forefront  of  science,  and 
Professor  Eudolf  Schmid,  President  of  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Schonthal,  Wiirtemburg,  who  stands  in 
the  forefront  of  philosophy,  claim  that  self-conscious 
and  responsibly  free  spirits  must  be  new  and  inde- 
pendent existences  transcending  nature,  they  going  so 
far   as  to  state  outright  that  each  human  soul  is  the 


42  SCIENCE  AND  PBA  YEB, 

result  of   a  separate   creative  fiat   of   the    Almighty. 

We  might  enforce  this  their  position  by  remarking  that 
out  of  the  old  nothing  new  can  come  except  new  combi- 
nations, and  the  soul  is  believed  to  be  an  absolutely  new 
element  and  not  simply  a  new  form  of  an  old  one.  This 
our  self- consciousness  positively  afi&rms,  and  we  must 
implicitly  rely  on  its  testimony  or  our  whole  foundation 
for  any  belief  is  hopelessly  swept  away.  It  also  says 
that  each  soul  is  an  indivisible  unit,  that  there  cannot  be 
transmitted  from  parent  to  child  any  portion  of  the  ego, 
Eesemblances  may  be,  but  nothing  of  the  child's 
spiritual  entity  has  been  or  can  be  derived  from  his  pro- 
genitors. Human  souls  are  God's  direct  gift.  To  the 
fashioning  of  each  one  he  has  given  his  personal  at- 
tention. It  is  only  its  fleshly  covering  and  its  other 
material  environment  he  has  entrusted  to  the  care  of 
secondary  causes. 

Facts  brought  to  light  by  modern  scientific  investiga- 
tions and  closely  analyzed  by  modern  scientific  methods, 
are  thus  daily  diffusing  and  deepening  the  belief  among 
the  candid  and  thoughtful  that  the  progress  through  the 
ages  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  amorphic 
matter  to  a  peopled  world,  has  been  something  more 
than  a  methodic,  self-originated,  and  self- sustained  evolu- 
tion of  elements  held  hidden  in  matter  from  all  eternity, 
that  absolutely  new  forces  have  from  time  to  time 
been  introduced  from  without  through  direct  creative 
fiats  of  a  personal   will,   the  old  forces,    inside  their 


iSCIENGE  AND  PR  A  YER.  43 

limitations  being,  as  the  work  progressed,  utilized,  when 
found    available,    simply  as  avenues  for  ushering  in 


the  new. 


III. 

We  now  come  to  the  third  general  division  of  our 
theme,  that  God  not  only  can  effectively  interfere,  either 
by  direct  or  indirect  methods,  without  working  any 
disorder,  abrogating  any  law,  or  destroying  any  force; 
and  that  he  not  only  has,  in  fact,  thus  interfered 
again  and  again  in  all  ages  and  in  countless  matters 
of  moment,  but,  further,  that  it  is  not  only  not  pre- 
sumptuous, but  most  natural  and  reasonable,  for  us 
to  expect  that  he  will  interfere  for  us  individually,  how- 
ever insignificant  we  may  at  present  seem  to  be. 

It  is  claimed  by  those  who  controvert  this  position, 
that  God  has,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  adopted 
broad,  comprehensive  plans,  in  which  he  has  regard 
to  general  interests,  and  not  to  exceptional  cases ; 
that  in  these  plans  he  is  as  unyielding  as  granite  ;  that 
his  interferences  have  been  in  the  nature  of  creative 
fiats,  simply  for  completing  these  wide-reaching  original 
designs ;  that  he  has  no  time  or  thought  for  individual 
cases ;  and  that,  if  any  one  of  us  would  secure  any 
of  the  benefits  of  the  present  order,  we  must  make 
these  plans  a  careful  study,  and  adjust  ourselves  to  them 

44 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  45 

as  best  we  can,  and  not  expect  their  author  to  break 
in  upon  them  and  give  his  personal  attention  to  our 
private,    insignificant  interests.      In  other  words,   we 
must  rely  on  our  own  exertions  for  any  modifications 
of  our  environments,  must  master  the  secrets  of  nature, 
comply  with  her  laws,  if  we  would  make  her  forces 
our  servitors  and  become  masters  of  our  circumstances. 
There  is  apparent  warrant  for  such  a  view.     It  would 
seem  as  if  the  individual  were  indeed  lost  sight  of, — 
everything  is  on  so  vast  a  scale,  every  part  of  this 
wonderful  mechanism  of  a  world  is  so  far-reaching  in  its 
results.     The  earth's  whirl  on  its  axis  brings  day  and 
night  for  all ;   the  inclination  of  its  axis  to  the  plane 
of  its  orbit  and  its  circuit  round  the  sun  determine 
the  change  of  seasons,  the  rise  and  fall  of  tides,  the 
width  of  zones,   the  force  and  direction  of  the  great 
trade- winds,  the  character  and  limitations  of  vegetable 
growths,  the  nature  and  habitat  of  the  fishes,  the  birds, 
and  the  beasts.     The  sun  ceaselessly  pours  out  in  every 
direction  that  mysterious  influence  which  we  call  light. 
It    indifferently   enters    hovels   and   marble   halls.     It 
comes  through  every  open  doorway,  every  uncurtained 
window,  every  crack  and  crevice.     It  purples  the  velvet 
petal  of   the  violet    and  fills  it  with  fragrance,    and 
afterward,  with  seemingly  heartless  haste,  rots  that  same 
petal  to  shapeless,    colorless,   odorless  dust  again.     It 
kisses  the  sheltered  valley  into  waving  harvests,   and 
at  the  same  time,  with  other  of  its  rays,  scorches  the 


46  SCIENCE  AND  Pit  A  YEB, 

sand  wastes  with  death's  desolation  and  silence.  At  one 
time  it  darts  in  through  the  pupil  of  the  eye,  and 
with  exquisite  art  transfers  to  the  retina  the  outer  glory 
and  thrills  the  soul  with  strange  rapture ;  at  another, 
when  the  delicate  nerves  are  aflame  with  fever,  it 
tortures  with  its  touch,  and  blisters  and  blackens 
that  very  same  canvas  it  had  with  its  swift  pencil 
painted  with  splendor.  An  atmosphere  miles  in  thick- 
ness completely  envelops  the  earth.  It  forces  itself 
in  everywhere.  All  gills  and  spiracles  and  lungs 
must  breathe  it,  though  sometimes  it  comes  loaded  with 
poison,  instead  of  balm.  Now  with  gentlest  zephyr- 
touch  it  gratefully  fans  the  cheek  of  an  invalid,  anon 
with  the  swift  sweep  of  a  cyclone  it  levels  a  forest  or  un- 
roofs a  city.  Water  is  as  omnipresent  as  air.  The 
air  is  indeed  permeated  with  it,  as  all  substances,  fluids 
and  solids,  have  their  every  particle  encased  in  air. 
What  interminable  leagues  of  tossing  billows,  with  their 
glistening  foam-caps  breaking  over  the  white-winged 
sea-gulls  of  commerce  as  they  hasten  on  venturesome 
errands  over  the  treacherous  depths,  some  to  reach 
safe  shelter,  it  may  be,  in  distant  ports,  some  to  fly 
wildly  before  an  angry  storm  and  sink  into  the  opening 
jaws  of  a  hungry  sea !  Fire,  though  not  actually, 
yet  potentially,  is  also  omnipresent.  Even  the  in- 
gredients of  water  itself  will  burn,  and  in  the  fierce 
flame  which  their  chemical  union  kindles,  the  metals 
and  the  earths,  even  fire-clay  itself,  will  be  consumed  to 


SCIENCE  AND  PMA  YEB.  47 

ashes.  Forests,  grasses,  and  peat  bogs,  underlying  beds 
of  coal,  countless  reservoirs  of  oil,  are  ready  for  the 
torch.  Angels  and  demons  of  combustion  are  all 
about  us.  They  stand  in  waiting  on  every  hand, 
ready  with  their  ruddy  faces  to  beam  kindliest  cheer 
from  our  furnaces  and  chimney  corners  and  swinging 
chandeliers  or  to  blaze  in  mad  fury  amid  the  crumbling 
walls  and  rafters  of  our  homes.  They  will  cook  for  our 
tables,  smelt  our  ores,  draw  our  trains  of  trade,  turn  the 
wheels  in  our  workshops,  multiply  our  comforts  a 
thousandfold,  or,  if  we  are  not  aware,  will,  as  very 
fiends  in  their  wild  work  of  a  night,  turn  our  proud 
Chicagos  into  smoldering  ruins.  In  some  far  past 
the  whole  earth  was  but  a  burning  ball,  and  lava  streams 
and  earthquakes  and  smoking  craters  tell  us  that  the 
primal  fires  still  rage  within.  This  elemental  force 
has  been  provided  on  a  grand  scale.  The  economic 
scheme  of  which  it  forms  a  part  embraces  the  farthest 
fixed  star  in  its  infinitude  of  thought. 

Electricity,  the  latest  utilized  force  of  nature,  has  been 
found  to  bear  the  same  stamp  of  universality  and  to 
stand  toward  us  in  this  same  twofold  relationship.  It 
falls  from  the  clouds  in  death-dealing  thunderbolts ; 
it  also  with  deft  fingers  renders  invaluable  service 
in  the  civilizing  arts  of  life.  It  becomes  the  winged 
Mercury  of  the  mind,  carrying  thought- messages  across 
continents  and  under  seas  with  well-nigh  the  swiftness 
of  light. 


48  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

As  we  thus  study  nature  force  by  force,  attribute 
by  attribute,  and  note  this  feature  of  universality  per- 
vading all,  and  this  dual  relationship  which  each 
sustains  of  blessing  or  cursing,  as  angel  or  devil,  how 
powerful  and  painful  the  questioning,  whether,  after  all, 
it  is  not  too  true  that  exceptional  cases,  or  individuals 
during  exceptional  crises,  have  failed  to  enter  as  factors 
into  the  thought  of  God  in  the  dispensations  of  his 
providence ;  whether  individuals  have  not  been  placed 
in  the  midst  of  the  same  possibilities;  and  whether 
it  does  not  rest  with  each  to  bravely  make  the  best 
of  his  environment,  and  trust  to  his  own  right  arm 
and  stout  heart  to  carry  him  through  !  And,  besides,  is 
not  God's  universe  so  wide,  are  not  his  cares  so  multitu- 
dinous and  complex,  that  he  has  time  to  make  only  gen- 
eral classifications,  establish  wide-reaching  laws,  delegate 
great  secondary  causes,  arrange  his  forces  on  a  scale 
graduated  with  mathematical  precision,  and  set  them  at 
work  in  grooves  unalterably  fixed  ?  Is  he  not  necessi- 
tated to  take  simply  a  sweeping  glance,  to  contemplate 
in  the  mass  the  swarming  myriads  of  beings  evolved 
from  the  dust  as  the  grand  processes  of  life  go  on  ?  Has 
he  not  thought  it  sufiacient  to  establish  the  great  dynas- 
ties of  organized  living  creatures  that  through  the 
ages  have  seemed  to  rise  and  sink  with  the  regularity  of 
the  tides  of  the  sea?  We  cannot  even  number  the 
massive  worlds  which  he  has  set  whirling  through 
illimitable  space,  and  which  must  demand  at  least  his 


SCIENCE  AND  PBA  YER.  49 

general  supervision    and    require    his   constantly  sus- 
taining power. 

At  first  glance  we  are  apt  to  conclude,  viewing  the 
subject  from  this  standpoint,  that  there  is  indeed  no 
individualizing  in  God's  providences,  no  attention  paid 
to  detail,  no  more  note  taken  of  the  units  that  make 
up  the  mass  than  the  farmer  takes  of  the  separate 
kernels  of  wheat  which  he  harvests  from  his  fields. 
Here  moves  by  a  cloud  of  locusts  dense  enough  to 
darken  the  sun  ;  an  east  wind  rises  and  greedy  ocean- 
billows  swallow  them  up.  A  volcano  bursts,  and  a  Her- 
culaneum  with  its  thronging  human  life  is  swiftly  buried 
in  a  grave  of  ashes.  There  comes  an  earthquake  shock, 
and  a  Sodom  sinks  into  the  sea  ;  a  steamboat  disaster,  a 
railroad  accident,  a  visitation  of  cholera,  a  breaking  out 
of  fire,  a  caving  in  of  a  colliery,  a  whirl  of  a  cyclone, 
and  scores  and  hundreds  of  human  lives  perish  in  an 
hour.  Is  it  probable  that  the  individual  arrests  the 
attention  of  the  Almighty  in  the  great  ongoings  of 
his  providence  ?  Have  you  and  I,  in  our  little  corner, 
ever  attracted  his  attention,  much  more  excited  his 
interest  ?  Has  his  great  heart  ever  beat  in  love  for  each 
one  of  us?  Has  he  ever  called  us  by  some  dear 
name  and  watched  with  tender  solicitude  the  unfolding 
of  our  powers,  entered  into  sympathy  when  our  hearts 
have  bled  with  bereavement,  or  been  crushed  with 
failure,  or  made  desolate  by  estrangement  or  unfeeling 
neglect  ?    How  many  hours  in  the  life  history  of  every 


50  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

one  of  US  are  darkened  by  a  sense  of  utter  loneliness ! 
How  many  times  our  hearts  cry  out  for  the  appreciative 
sympathy  of  a  divine  companionship !  Oh  for  that  com- 
forting assurance  which  blessed  Christ's  sorrow- wrung 
heart  when  he  said,  ^^And  yet  I  am  not  alone,  for 
the  Father  is  with  me''  !  Is  it  presumptuous  for  us 
to  think  that  that  assurance  may  also  be  ours  ?  That  it 
is  not,  I  believe  to  be  the  unmistakable  teachings,  not 
only  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  but  of  all  animate  and 
inanimate  nature  and  of  all  sound  philosophy. 

The  Scriptures  are  full  of  this  consoling  revelation. 
There  is  rarely  a  page  not  illumined  by  it.  To  teach  it 
was  one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  Christ's  ministry. 
How  he  delighted  to  dwell  on  the  brooding  watchfulness 
of  the  Father !  In  reassuring  his  disciples  he  told  them 
that  God,  who  gave  his  personal  attention  to  the  cloth- 
ing of  the  grass  and  the  lilies,  and  was  not  so  great  or  so 
busy  as  to  overlook  the  fall  of  even  a  little  sparrow, 
surely  would  keep  loving  and  sleepless  watch  over 
them.  Even  the  hairs  of  their  heads,  he  confidently 
assured  them,  were  all  numbered. 

Such  like  disclosures,  so  many  and  so  explicit,  through- 
out the  books  of  the  Bible,  find  most  abundant  confir- 
mation in  the  facts  of  science.  The  geologist  and  the 
chemist,  the  botanist  and  the  naturalist,  have  in  their 
separate  departments  found  phenomena  which  the 
Christian  philosopher  may  boldly  claim  as  incontestable 
evidences  of  God's  sympathetic  presence  with  his  chil- 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  51 

dren.  The  more  deeply  nature  is  searched,  the  more 
convincing  the  proofs  of  God's  infinite  painstaking  for 
his  creatures.  His  plans  to  these  ends  have  evidently- 
been  thought  out  in  their  minutest  details.  We  are 
overwhelmed  with  astonishment  as  we  see  into  what 
small  concerns  he  has  suffered  his  thoughts  to  enter,  and 
out  of  them  by  an  ingenuity  of  contriving  possible  only 
to  a  creator  of  limitless  resources  has  wrought  results  of 
far-reaching  import.  Ko  candid  student  of  nature  can 
fail  of  becoming  profoundly  convinced  that  there  is 
absolutely  nothing,  however  inconspicuous,  that  does 
not  only  embody  a  divine  thought,  but  in  some  way 
plays  a  part  in  carrying  out  the  promptings  of  a  divine 
love. 

If  any  one  in  his  hours  of  depression  is  haunted  with 
the  feeling  that  he  is  too  insignificant  to  attract  God's 
personal  attention,  much  more  be  the  object  of  his  con- 
stant loving  care,  he  will  find  himself  wonderfully 
reassured  if  he  will  lay  down  the  telescope  and  take  up 
the  microscope,  for  he  will  soon  see  that  the  fault  is  all 
in  himself,  in  that  he  has  had  a  far  too  meagre  concep- 
tion of  God's  thought- range  and  breadth  of  sympathy. 
Such  an  examination  will  disclose  to  him  that,  as  a 
positive  fact,  God  has  somehow  found  abundant  time, 
notwithstanding  the  multiplicity  and  the  magnitude  of 
the  interests  of  his  vast  universe,  to  give  his  personal 
attention  to  the  equipping  and  provisioning  of  beings  of 
infinitesimal  minuteness.     That  mighty  hand  in  whose 


52  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER, 

hollow  the  heavens  are  held,  has  also  sufficient  delicacy 
and  precision  of  touch  to  fashion  the  finely  reticulated 
wing  of  the  ephemeron.  The  same  art- conception  and 
marvelous  skill  that  paint  the  sunset  and  bend  the  rain- 
bow have  touched  with  most  brilliant  pigment  each 
feather  in  the  plumage  of  the  fly.  The  same  musician 
who  has  also  conceived  the  grand  organ  harmonies  of 
ocean  billow  and  thunderburst,  has  also  adjusted,  part 
to  part,  with  loving  care,  that  sweetest  of  musical  instru- 
ments, the  throat  of  the  skylark,  whose  wild  rapture  of 
song  so  thrilled  the  ethereally  gifted  Shelley  that  he 
immortalized  it  in  verse  as  the  blithe  spirit- voice  of  the 
air. 

God  apparently  shows  not  only  the  same  infinitude  of 
care,  but  the  same  keen  personal  delight,  in  his  works 
in  the  domain  of  the  minute  as  in  that  of  the  vast  and 
the  mighty.  Look  deeply  as  we  may  into  nature  with 
our  most  powerful  artificial  lenses,  even  to  the  very 
microscope-limit,  we  can  detect  no  hasty  oversight,  no 
cold  indifference,  but  exhaustlessness  of  patience  and 
lavishment  of  thought,  and  in  every  detail  of  each  work 
an  absolute  faultlessness  of  finish.  Illustrations  of  these 
comforting  truths  abound  all  about  us.  The  world  is 
full  of  them,  but  I  have  time  to  cite  only  two  or  three. 

There  is  a  class  of  microscopic  animals,  the  Diatom- 
aceae,  which  have  existed  in  such  vast  numbers  that 
entire  mountains  have  been  found  composed  of  their  re- 
mains.    The  forms  of  their  infinitesimal  shells  when 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  53 

magnified  are  discovered  to  be  of  most  exquisite  beauty 
and  of  every  conceivable  pattern.  ^'In  the  same  drop 
of  moisture  there  may  be  some  dozen  or  twenty  forms, 
each  with  its  own  distinctive  pattern,  all  as  constant  as 
they  are  distinctive,  yet  all  having  apparently  the 
same  habits  and  without  any  perceptible  difference  of 
function."  Neither  sexual  nor  natural  selection  has,  so 
far  as  we  can  discover,  any  governing  influence  here. 
In  these  varied  beauties  are  there  not  evidences,  which 
scientific  theorists  have  so  far  failed  successfully  to  con- 
trovert, of  God's  giving  his  personal  attention  to  the 
adornment  of  the  minutest  of  his  creatures,  to  his  con- 
ceiving and  embodying  in  innumerable  faultless  forms 
and  pleasing  combinations  of  tints  his  conceptions  of 
beauty?  How  this  infinite  painstaking  has  benefited 
these  mysterious  specks  of  life,  we  have  no  means  of 
determining.  Perhaps  they  come  and  go  without 
having  the  faintest  intimation  of  the  symmetries  and 
colorings  which  the  Divine  Architect  and  Artist  has,  by 
the  interposition  of  direct  will  power,  introduced  into 
their  calcareous  palace  homes.  We  cannot  prove  that 
it  was  for  their  especial  benefit  these  patterns  and  paint- 
ings were  designed.  Perhaps  the  ultimate  purpose  was 
the  sesthetic  culture  of  inquiring  human  souls,  or  it 
may  be  that  other  and  even  higher  ends  will  come  to 
light  in  some  after  age.  Certain  it  is  such  painstaking 
implies  a  purpose,  and  whether  we  can  discover  it  or 
not,  the  fact  brings  with  it,  to  every  thoughtful  mind. 


64  f'iCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

with  overwhelmingly  convincing  force,  that  God  is  per- 
sonally conversant  with,  and  has  taken  an  active 
personal  interest  in,  the  life- furnishings  of  creatures  so 
minute  that  their  individual  forms  are  to  us  absolutely 
invisible  without  the  aid  of  the  microscope,  and  so  low 
in  the  scale  of  being  that  naturalists  are  still  divided  in 
opinion  as  to  whether  they  are  animals  or  plants. 

The  inorganic  world  equally  abounds  in  illustrative 
proofs  of  this  same  comforting  truth.  I  will  select  a 
single  one.  The  luminous  flame  that  has  brightened 
human  homes  through  all  civilized  centuries  is  an  aeri- 
form chemical  combination  of  hydrogen  with  oxygen 
and  carbon.  The  difference  in  the  degree  of  inflamma- 
bility of  the  first  two  gases  is  the  cause  of  all  the 
illuminating  properties  of  the  flame,  and  yet  that  differ- 
ence is  so  slight  that  the  times  of  their  ignition  are 
separated  by  a  period  absolutely  imperceptible  to  our 
unaided  senses.  The  hydrogen  takes  fire  a  very  small 
fraction  of  a  second  before  the  carbon,  and  as  it  unites 
with  the  oxygen  of  the  air  it  lets  go  its  chemical  hold  on 
the  carbon,  which  the  instant  it  is  thus  released  changes 
from  a  gas  to  a  solid,  so  that  into  the  colorless  flame  of 
hydrogen  is  constantly  being  showered  the  finest  car- 
bonic dust.  These  minute  particles  become  little  glow- 
ing coals  emitting  a  brilliant  light  just  for  an  instant, 
and  then,  like  the  hydrogen,  spring  into  the  chemical 
embrace  of  the  all -devouring  oxygen.  The  infinite 
painstaking  here  displayed,  the  delicate  nicety  of  adjust- 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  55 

mentj  the  critical  attention  to  the  minutest  details,  are 
no  less  astounding  than  the  world-embracing  beneficence 
of  the  results. 

The  case  of  the  little  brown  water-spider,  to  which 
brief  allusion  has  already  been  made,  is  the  only 
other  illustration  I  shall  have  space  to  give  of  God's 
personal,  painstaking  care  over  the  minutest  matters 
in  his  kingdom.  In  common  with  the  numerous  species 
of  this  order  of  articulates  which  abound  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  this  diminutive  creature  has  had  given  to 
it  four  pairs  of  seven-jointed  legs,  the  last  joint  armed 
with  two  hooks  toothed  like  a  comb,  frontal  poison- 
fed  claws,  eight  eyes  and  a  multitude  of  spinnerets  from 
whose  infinitesimal  openings  issues  a  glutinous  liquid 
which  the  instant  the  air  strikes  it  hardens  into  threads 
invisible  from  their  fineness  until  they  are  massed 
together  into  a  single,  strong,  elastic  cable.  But  it 
has  furnishings  and  instinctive  impulses  peculiarly  its 
own.  Its  body  has  a  thick  covering  of  hair  which  it  has 
been  taught  to  most  curiously  utilize.  Strange  to  say, 
this  air-breathing  animal  is  prompted  to  build  its  home 
and  rear  its  little  ones  on  the  beds  of  streams,  and 
the  devices  by  which  it  has  been  enabled  to  surmount 
what  to  us  would  seem  insuperable  obstacles  may  well 
fill  us  with  admiring  wonder.  It  weaves  a  diving-bell, 
air-tight,  mouth  downward,  and  ties  it  tightly  to  the 
bottom.  Then  coming  to  the  surface  it  covers  its  hairy 
abdomen  with  fine  web,  lies  on  its  back  until  all  the 


66  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB, 

interstices  between  the  hairs  and  the  meshes  of  web 
are  filled  with  air,  swims  under  the  bell,  presses  out  into 
it  the  entangled  air,  comes  again  to  the  surface,  and 
repeats  the  process,  until  all  the  water  at  first  in  the 
bell  has  been  displaced,  and  the  bell  made  habitable. 

In  all  this  procedure  the  spider  has  unquestionably- 
been  guided  by  him  who  equipped  it.  No  candid 
and  appreciative  observer  can  fail  to  note  this,  for  what, 
can  it  be  imagined,  first  determined  it,  supposing  it 
to  be  following  out  its  own  thinking,  thus  to  locate 
its  nest  under  water,  for  it  has  no  gills  fitting  it  for  such 
a  habitat,  or  how  did  it  study  out  so  ingenious  a  method 
for  making  such  an  undertaking  possible?  The  in- 
ventor of  this  bell  must  have  known  that  air  is 
lighter  than  water,  that  it  can  be  mechanically  retained 
in  fine  fabrics,  and  that  when  introduced  into  an  in- 
verted receiver  it  will  crowd  out  the  water,  instead 
of  being  absorbed  by  it.  Has  this  spider  been  so  close  a 
student  of  nature  as  to  have  discovered  these  laws  of 
physics,  and  is  it  so  gifted  an  inventor  as  thus  in- 
geniously to  have  applied  its  knowledge,  without  either 
instruction  or  experience?  This  daintiest  of  palaces 
must  have  been  thought  out  in  all  its  details  before 
the  spider  began  spinning  its  first  thread,  for  the  weaver 
shows  no  hesitancy  and  makes  no  mistake.  It  must  also 
have  been  the  work  of  a  single  mind,  for  its  parts  are  so 
intimately  correlated  that  the  absence  of  a  single  one 
would    not   simply  obscure  the  conception,   it  would 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  57 

totally  destroy  it.  There  must  be  either  perfection  or 
flat  failure.  This  alternative  was  presented  to  the 
first  spider  of  the  species.  I  would  like  to  show,  had 
I  time,  how  this  little  creature  is  also  equally  blessed 
with  divine  guidance  as  to  how  and  where  it  shall 
deposit  its  eggs,  how  enwrap  them  in  clusters  with 
silken  cocoons  for  protection  and  warmth,  when  and 
how  to  release  the  tiny  babies  from  their  coverings 
and  transport  and  feed  them  when  first  they  come, 
as  they  are  sure  to  do,  in  swarming  and  hungry 
companies. 

The  equally  marvelous  prescience  and  skill  displayed 
by  all  instinct  guided  creatures  and  their  equally  mar- 
velous equipment  for  their  work,  afford  us  illustrative 
proofs  without  number  of  God's  most  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with,  and  loving  care  for,  the  momentary  interests 
of  earth's  speechless,  soulless,  perishing  myriads. 
I^either  their  implements  nor  their  skill  can  be  ac- 
counted for  as  the  slow  outcome  of  stern  experience, 
for  their  instinctive  promptings  are  followed  blindly, 
and  their  wisdom  and  skill  antedate  experience,  and  are 
independent  of  the  aids  of  instruction  or  of  any 
working  model.  To  the  progenitors  at  least  of  every 
animal  species,  there  has  come  a  direct  divine  impress- 
ment and  informing.  New  wants  with  correspondingly 
new  implements  and  new  instinctive  impulses  issued 
from  the  creative  will  of  the  Almighty.  Provision  wa» 
doubtless  made  at  the  incoming  of   each  species  fox 


58  f^CIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

the  transmission,  through  laws  of  heredity,  of  such  traits 
as  should  constitute  its  distinctive  endowment,  and  thus 
a  general  supervision  over  each  species  instituted. 

But  still  more  specific  provision  seems  to  have  been 
made  to  cover  exceptional  necessities,  to  answer  the 
demands  of  exceptional  crises  in  the  individual  lives 
of  the  seemingly  most  insignificant.  There  appears  to 
have  been  left  a  certain  latitude  of  modification  and 
amendment  of  instinctive  promptings.  As  I  have 
already  remarked,  animals  unquestionably  possess,  in 
common  with  us,  not  only  blindly  followed  instincts,  but 
sense-perception,  association  of  objects  and  ideas,  auto- 
matic attention,  involuntary  memory,  indeliberate  voli- 
tion, reproductive  imagination,  sympathetic  emotion, 
and  emotional  expression.  Though  the  phenomena  of 
their  thought-life  may  be  classed  under  these  lower 
forms  of  mentality,  though  they  may  never  rise  to 
deliberative,  abstract,  introvertive  thinking,  may  never 
attain  to  self-consciousness,  having  no  self  to  be  con- 
scious of,  may  never  have  the  clear  light  of  reason 
or  ever  exercise  a  responsibly  free  choice,  yet  they 
do  seem  to  have  had  some  means  provided  for  supple- 
menting instinct  in  those  peculiar  emergencies  for  which 
no  general  provision  through  instinct  could  be  secured. 
This  clearly  evidences  to  us  that  God's  providential 
care,  even  over  the  lowliest,  extends  beyond  the  segre- 
gated mass  that  constitutes  the  species  to  each  separate 
individual  in  it,  and  even  to  that  individual's  excep- 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  59 

tional  needs.  The  thinking  here  displayed,  though  out- 
side the  circle  of  instinct  proper,  will  still  be  found, 
on  final  analysis,  to  be  God's,  and  not  theirs. 

To  receive  the  full  force  of  this  comforting  truth, 
we  must  keep  in  mind  that  all  this  loving  care  is 
taken  for  creatures  of  a  day,  who  are  here  hemmed 
in  by  simple  sense,  and  who  have  promise  of  no  to- 
morrow ;  and  we  must  also  keep  in  mind,  what  science 
has  not  only  conclusively  demonstrated,  but  illumined 
and  glorified  by  its  extensive  researches,  that  man  is 
a  microcosm,  the  crown  of  creation,  the  consummate 
flower  of  all  the  ages,  that  it  was  for  him  this  world  was 
provided  with  its  mineral  deposits,  rock- quarries,  and 
coal  beds,  with  its  vast  reservoirs  of  oil,  its  dense  forests 
and  waving  grains  and  grasses,  with  its  flocks  and  herds, 
with  its  mighty  elemental  forces,  with  its  flower-petals, 
its  arching  rainbows,  and  its  painted  skies. 

It  was  to  secure  for  him,  nature's  sceptered  king,  a 
fitting  environment,  that  all  the  mighty  processes  of 
evolution  had  been  carried  on  through  all  the  untold 
geologic  eons  of  forgotten  time,  and  it  was  for  him  earth 
was  fitted  up,  not  as  a  permanent  home,  as  the  all-in-all 
of  his  existence,  but  simply  as  a  first  year's  training 
school  for  powers  which,  though  barely  budding  now, 
have  in  them  the  promise  and  the  potency  of  an  endless 
life  and  of  a  divine  likeness.  A  single  deathless  human 
soul  outweighs  in  worth  ten  thousand  worlds  of  lower 
sentient  life. 


60  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

HaviDg  described  at  some  length,  in  a  paper  entitled 
^'Science  and  Christ/'  the  discoveries  and  conclusions  of 
science  as  to  man's  place  in  nature,  and  having  no  space 
here  for  its  general  discussion,  I  will  content  myself 
with  the  simple  statement  that  the  more  profoundly 
phenomena  have  been  studied  by  scientists  and  scien- 
tific philosophers,  the  more  clearly  and  gloriously  have 
shone  out  the  truths  to  which  I  have  just  alluded ;  that 
God  has  been  busied  through  untold  ages  in  preparing 
for  man's  advent,  that  man  has  been  the  grand  goal  of 
his  endeavor,  the  ultima  Thule  of  his  creative  thought  on 
this  planet  j  that  all  this  prolonged  preparation  could 
not  have  been  merely  to  render  comfortable  a  short-lived 
and  low-planed  animal  existence,  that  this  patient 
approach  could  not  have  been  to  a  consummation  so  in- 
consequential and  unworthy,  but  that  he  for  whom  the 
centuries  have  been  so  long  waiting  and  to  whose  com- 
ing they  have  been  pointing  with  prophetic  finger,  who 
fulfills  the  types,  completes  the  prophecies,  wears  the 
crown,  surely  was  not  born  to  die  j  and  that  he  who  has 
proved  himself  capable  of  unraveling  the  intricacies 
and  following  the  vast  sweep  of  the  divine  thought  as  is 
evidenced  by  his  discoveries  in  science,  his  classifications 
of  knowledge,  his  advancement  in  the  arts,  his  rapidly 
approaching  universal  mastery  and  ingenious  utilization 
of  nature's  forces,  his  unconscious  duplicating  of  God's 
thought-processes  as  incorporated  in  the  lives  of  the 
world's    silent,    instinct-guided     workers    and    in    the 


SCrEl^CE  AND  PR  A  YER.  61 

mechanism  of  their  bodies  ;  he  who  has  proved  himself 
capable  of  so  apprehending  the  spirit  of  God's  vast 
creative  plans  as  to  be  able  to  become  his  sub- creator, 
noticeably  multiplying  and  improving  the  products  of 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  making  the  waters  swarm, 
turning  deserts  into  gardens,  developing  the  crude  possi- 
bilities of  untamed  nature ;  he  whose  whole  being  can 
thrill  with  harmonies  of  sound,  of  form,  and  of  color, 
and  who  has  not  only  reproduced  them  but  carried 
them  to  grand  exaltations  in  oratorio  and  sculptured 
marble,  speaking  canvas,  cathedral  pile,  and  landscape 
gardening,  and  has  laid  all  matter  and  even  all  force 
under  tribute  to  his  aesthetic  tastes  j  he  who  can  thus 
enter  with  keen  appreciative  zest  and  assimilative 
capacity  into  the  thought-life  of  God ;  and,  finally,  he 
who  has  had  entrusted  to  him,  what  far  transcend 
everything  beside,  the  responsible  gifts  of  moral  dis- 
cernment and  liberty  of  choice,  out  of  which  alone 
character  can  come,  surely  must  have  reached,  in  point 
of  privilege,  the  very  top  of  being,  and  must  possess  in 
living  germ  the  very  attributes  of  God  himself,  with  all 
the  golden  possibilities  of  growth  in  God's  eternal  years. 
When  we  thus  attempt  to  measure  the  worth  and  dig- 
nity of  man,  we  must  also  keep  in  mind  that  each  indi- 
vidual soul  comes  fresh  from  the  Creator,  and  is  not 
simply  the  product  of  processes  of  evolution  begun  in 
some  far  age  and  perpetuated  by  secondary  causes  which 
God  has  long  since  ceased  to  superintend  and  to  whose 


62  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

general  outcome  alone  he  has  ever  directed  attention. 
The  soul's  environment;  its  body  and  its  wider  surround- 
ings are,  indeed,  the  result  of  such  processes,  but  each 
soul  is  in  itself  a  unique  spiritual  entity,  bearing  the  im- 
print of  a  distinct  personal  purpose,  and  constituting  the 
embodiment  of  some  cherished  ideal,  some  fond  antici- 
pation, some  sacred  love,  right  out  of  the  very  throbbing 
heart  of  God. 

The  drift  of  the  centuries  has  been  to  an  ever  more 
complete  development  of  individuality ;  it  has  been 
a  progress  from  homogeneity  to  heterogeneity  ;  such  has 
been  the  history  of  evolution  from  the  dawn  of  time, 
as  Spencer,  Huxley,  and  thinkers  of  that  school  have, 
through  learned  and  brilliant  treatises,  informed  the 
world. 

It  is  not  the  great  mass  as  such  that  excites  God's 
loving  interest,  but  the  individualized  units  in  it.  It 
was  not  the  creating  and  provisioning  of  a  mighty 
human  race  simply  as  such  that  was  the  ultima  Thule  of 
his  thought,  but  the  developing  of  the  distinctive  per- 
sonal traits  of  individual  souls,  and  the  establishing 
with  them  at  the  last,  after  discipline  has  done  its  work, 
intimate  and  eternal  companionship.  To  think  that 
God  ever  purposed  to  stop  short  of  this  would  be  to 
belittle  his  plan,  belie  the  teachings  of  all  sound  science 
and  philosophy,  leave  the  grand  scheme  of  evolution 
incomplete,  and  judge  of  God  as  beiug  coldly  self- 
contained,    craving    no    sympathy,    contentedly  sitting 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  63 

apart  in  eternal  isolation,  wholly  unresponsive  to  the 
tender  pleadings  of  his  children. 

When  we  discover  that  God  has  given  his  personal 
attention  and  poured  out  a  wealth  of  inventive  thought 
on  every  particle  of  dust,  on  every  minutest  fiber 
of  every  leaflet,  on  every  organ  of  every  infinitesimal 
creature,  we  can  no  longer  reasonably  withhold  our 
faith  in  his  sympathetic  presence  with  the  humblest  of 
his  human  children.  And  so  science  will  eventually 
forever  silence  the  fear  of  the  self- depreciating,  who,  in 
their  discouragement,  are  tempted  to  doubt  whether  the 
great  God  of  the  universe  has  ever  in  the  vast  multi- 
plicity of  his  affairs  particularly  noticed  them,  much 
more  kept  loving  and  tireless  watch  over  their  personal 
destiny,  or  ever  sought  for  their  confidence  and  the  out- 
pouring of  their  longing  and  their  love. 

But  science  has  not  only  convinced  us  that  we  have  no 
valid  reason  for  questioning  God's  sympathetic  presence, 
but  furnished  the  strongest  possible  grounds  for  resting 
our  full  faith  upon  it,  and  making  it  the  delight  and  in- 
spiration of  our  burdened  souls.  Those  grounds  it 
furnished  the  moment  it  published  its  discovery  that 
every  form  of  vegetative  and  animal  life  demanded  an 
environment,  that  it  has  no  resources  in  itself  for  self- 
maintenance,  and  that  also  within  its  reach  it  invariably 
found  that  on  which  it  was  fitted  to  feed.  Plants  have 
required  soils  and  sunlight  and  distilling  dews,  and  they 
have  found  them.     Though  almost  countless  the  pecul- 


64  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

iarities  of  need,  no  species  htis  appeared  for  which 
provision  has  not  been  made  awaiting  its  advent.  The 
seaweed  found  its  ocean  bed  and  salted  surf;  the  cactus, 
its  parched  sand  plain  j  the  lichen,  its  rock ;  the  edel- 
weiss, its  Alpine  height ;  the  gills  and  fins  of  fish, 
oceans  of  water  ;  the  wings  and  lungs  of  birds,  oceans 
of  air.  Our  eyes  have  found  objects  without  to  be 
painted  on  their  retince  within  and  artist-sunbeams  to 
paint  them  ;  our  olfactories,  the  air  loaded  with  odorous 
exhalations ;  our  nerves  of  taste,  a  wide  variety  of 
flavors  to  select  and  enjoy  ;  our  ears,  all  nature  vocal 
with  a  grand  concert  of  song.  Not  only  are  our  bodies 
constituted  to  touch  and  take  in  an  environment  and 
find  one  wondrously  suited  to  every  need,  but  the  same 
is  true  of  both  our  intellectual  and  emotional  capacities. 
All  nature  abounds  with  suggestive  thought.  It  is  full 
of  mental  stimulant.  It  is  a  book  in  which  every  grade 
of  intellect  finds  passages  of  absorbing  interest  and 
deepest  import.  Its  leaves  are  turned  eagerly  by 
prattling  children,  gray-haired  savants,  matter-of-fact 
men  of  affairs,  dream- enamored  poets,  and  system- 
building  philosophers.  Its  lore  is  still  unexhausted, 
though  the  human  race  for  scores  of  centuries  has  sought 
to  master  it.  It  has  depths  of  meaning  which  human 
insight  has  not  yet  fathomed  :  heights  of  sublime  exalta- 
tion to  which  not  even  the  most  spiritually  gifted  have 
yet  attained.  It  is  full  of  open  letters  to  every  son  and 
daughter  of  earth  with  every  sentence  penned  by  a 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB.  65 

divine  hand.     Our  longings  for  intellectual  and  sympa- 
thetic interchange  with    our    fellows    have    been  met 
through  literature  and  arts  and  architecture,   through 
family  ties  and  ever  widening  social  circles.     But  with 
this  almost  infinite    painstaking  to  provide  a  fitting 
environment  for  man,  there  is  a  want  which  in  all  the 
fulness  of  God's  works  there  is  absolutely  nothing  suited 
to  satisfy.     Man  in  his  higher  nature  craves  a  sympathy 
which  no  creature    can    give.     Unless  these  spiritual 
aspirations  and  deep  longings,  the  sure  tokens  not  only 
of  his  divine  sonship  but  of  his  divine  likeness,  can  find 
a  divine  environment  of  companionship,  of  interchange 
of  thought  and   affection,  all  that  is  God-like  within 
him  will  languish  and  die  and  he  sink  to  brute  life 
or  below  it.     National  and  individual  history,  wherever 
people  have  self-exiled  themselves  from  the  Father,  has 
furnished  sad  cumulative  proofs  of  this.     Is  it  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  a  plan  so  wonderful  in  its  elaborate 
painstaking  and  masterful  achievements,  exhibiting  such 
seeming  exhaustlessness  of  inventive  resource,    would 
fail  just  where  a  failure  must  prove  so  disastrous.     Is  it 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  God  would  create  man  with  a 
capacity  and  a  longing  for  his  own  sympathetic  presence, 
indeed  make  that  presence  necessary  to  his  well-being, 
and  then  withhold  it ;  that  he  would  give  him  spiritual 
lungs  on  whose  respiration  of  an  atmosphere  of  divine 
loving    recognition    his    spiritual    life    depended,    and 
then  leave  him  to  pant  and  die  in  a  vacuum?     These 


66  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

questions  carry  with  them  their  own  emphatic  denial. 
To  proclaim  this  grand  fact  of  God's  sympathetic 
presence  and  to  embody  it  in  a  life  was  the  glory  of 
Christ's  mission  to  this  sin-cursed  and  sorrow-burdened 
world.     He  even  sealed  it  with  his  blood. 

Thus  from  nature,  philosophy,  and  the  revealed  word 
there  comes  to  this  life-giving  fact  a  threefold  confirma- 
tion. 

In  our  lonely  hours,  in  hours  of  desperate  battling 
with  temptation,  of  bitter  bereavement,  of  perplexed 
and  care -cumbered  thought,  at  times  when  our  hearts 
bleed  with  poignant  regret  or  through  unjust  accusation, 
when  friends  on  whom  we  have  leaned  or  in  whom 
we  have  confided  the  sacred  secrets  of  our  inner  selves 
have  become  estranged,  through  the  long  days  of  lan- 
guishment  on  sick  beds,  in  moments  when  with  stream- 
ing eyes  and  trembling  lips  we  bid  good-by  to  loved 
ones,  in  every  hour  of  need,  we  are  privileged  to  say,  as 
did  the  Saviour  when  the  dark  clouds  gathered  about 
him  J  ^^And  yet  I  am  not  alone,  for  the  Father  is 
with  me." 

Out  from  God's  sympathetic  presence  into  the  chill 
night  of  an  endless  death  the  incorrigibly  wicked  finally 
go  away.  Into  it  the  lovingly  obedient  come,  into 
its  welcoming  smile,  its  golden  sunlight,  its  eternal  day. 


lY. 

I  HAVE  thus  far  attempted  to  show — 

1.  How  God  can  interfere  in  nature  whenever  he 
chooses  without  working  any  confusion,  abrogating 
any  law,  or  destroying  any  force  ; 

2.  That  he  has  thus  actually  interfered,  and  that 
repeatedly  ; 

3.  That  we  are,  each  one  of  us,  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  warrant  his  interfering  for  us. 

I  now  desire  to  consider  whether  we  can  reasonably 
believe  that  he  will  interfere  because  we  ask  him,  doing 
for  us  what  otherwise  he  would  not  have  done. 

In  following  out  the  different  lines  of  inquiry  sug- 
gested by  this  theme,  we  have  found  the  whole  earth  in- 
stinct with  the  Divine  Presence,  that  whichever  way  we 
turn  we  stand  face  to  face  with  nature's  God,  witnessing 
not  only  finished  works  replete  with  his  thought,  but 
works  still  being  carried  on  by  organized  and  tireless 
living  forces.  These  forces  we  have  found  wrapped 
in  such  unfathomable  mystery,  working  right  before  our 
very  eyes  with  such  unabated  vigor,  such  wondrous  pre- 
cision, such  wisdom,  such  irresistibleness  of  movement, 

67 


68  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

that  we  have  recognized  divine  thought  and  divine 
power  in  every  bit  of  rock  crystal,  every  pendent 
leaf,  every  tint  of  sky  or  painted  petal,  every  liquid 
note  of  bird,  or  restless  tongue  of  flame.  And  it  has 
greatly  enhanced  our  pleasure  to  find  that  our  own 
minds  are  so  akin  to  the  divine  that  we  can  trace 
with  clear,  interpretive  insight  the  great  trend  of  God's 
thoughts  through  the  ages  as  they  have  become  in- 
carnated one  by  one ;  for  when,  from  off  that  illumined 
face  confronting  us  everywhere,  there  thus  fades  that 
strange  far-away  look  and  in  its  stead  comes  an  answer- 
ing glance  of  recognition  and  kindly  greeting,  that 
face  apparently  draws  so  near  we  can  all  but  feel  its 
warm  touch  upon  our  cheek,  look  down  into  the  infinite 
depths  of  its  love-lit  eyes,  and  see  the  parting  of  its  lips 
as  they  break  the  long-kept  silence  with  words  of 
benediction. 

But  it  appearing  that  these  forces  are  derivative 
and  delegated,  rather  than  direct  acts  of  divine  will,  we 
have  found  that  we  must  take  other  steps  in  our 
thinking  before  we  can  reach  that  assurance  for 
which  every  human  heart  hungers,  of  God's  still  be- 
ing present  on  this  earth  and  still  actively  interested 
in  it ;  for  otherwise,  what  grounds  have  we  for  believing 
that  these  forces  were  not  fully  commissioned  ages 
ago,  and  that  since  then  God  has  gone  far  into  the  stellar 
depths  to  people  other  planets  and  never  once  come 
back  again  or  even  given  this  little  globe  a  passing 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  69 

thought?  for  otherwise,  how  do  we  know  but  that  the 
earth  is  nothing  more  than  a  finished  piece  of  mechan- 
ism, like  the  watches  we  carry,  and,  like  them,  wound 
up  and  kept  running  by  the  coiled  energy  of  some 
hidden  spiral  spring?  Happily  we  have  discovered 
that  matter  and  force  are  of  such  a  nature,  and  so 
related,  that  abundant  opportunity  has  been  afforded, 
and  with  apparent  design,  for  the  effective  intervention 
at  any  time  of  direct  will-power.  A  study  of  our 
own  experiences  has  suggested  this ;  for,  if  we  by 
the  might  of  our  own  wills  have  wrought  such  multi- 
tudinous changes  on  the  earth,  we  can  readily  con- 
ceive that  the  divine  will  can  work  by  analogous 
methods,  and  be  as  much  more  effective  as  the  divine 
knowledge  transcends  the  human.  It  cannot,  as  we 
have  found,  be  reasonably  urged  that  this,  God's,  direct 
personal  interference  would  be  a  confession  of  flaw  in 
his  scheme  of  evolution,  as  provision  for  this  may 
have  been,  and  doubtless  was,  a  part  of  that  very 
scheme.  He,  as  we  have  seen,  left  many  of  his  works 
incomplete  with  the  evident  design  that  man's  will 
should  complete  them ;  and  if  provision  was  thus 
made  for  the  after  use  of  the  guiding  force  of  the  human 
will,  why  not  for  that  of  the  divine  ?  And  we  are 
confirmed  in  this  faith  when  we  reflect  that,  otherwise, 
God,  instead  of  being  an  exhaustless  fountain  of  out- 
flowing, energizing  thought,  instead  of  being  to  us 
the    very    personification  of   living  force,    of   tireless 


70  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB. 

mental  buoyancy  and  zest,  becomes  a  i^icture  of  change- 
less, thoughtless,  emotionless  calm,  of  absolute  mental 
stagnation ;  all  the  vast  plans  of  his  whole  universe 
of  worlds,  having  been  inconceivable  ages  ago,  not  only 
determined  upon  to  their  minutest  details,  but  intrusted 
for  their  unfolding  to  agencies  fully  commissioned  and 
empowered  to  carry  out  those  details  to  the  very 
letter.  Since  that  time,  which  lies  in  a  past  so  remote 
that  no  finite  imagination  can  conceive  it,  he  must  have 
been  lying  with  folded  hands  and  folded  thought  and 
folded  feeling,  virtually  dead  in  the  midst  of  the 
abounding  life  which  he  himself  created.  This  concep- 
tion of  the  divine  existence  is  repellent  to  every  earnest 
active  soul,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  discoveries  of 
science  to  compel  such  a  belief.  The  perfecting  of 
the  intellectual  and  spiritual  in  man  must,  of  course,  be 
God's  highest  work  here,  and  command  his  chief  at- 
tention. But  he  has  linked  the  soul  indissolubly  with 
matter  and  cosmic  force  in  this  world  certainly,  and  also 
in  the  next,  if  the  Bible  disclosures  be  true  ;  for  after 
death  our  souls,  so  says  the  record,  will  still  be  clothed 
upon,  though  the  garments  be  of  an  imperishable 
and  glorified  texture.  So  we  have  no  warrant  in  affirm- 
ing that  God  has  withdrawn  his  personal  oversight 
and  interference  from  any,  even  the  lowest  of  his 
kingdoms,  so  long  as  they  are  so  inseparably  inter- 
twined, and  exercise  over  each  other  an  influence  so 
vital  and  lasting. 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEH.  71 

The  facts  of  the  past  as  disclosed  by  science,  we  have 
found  to  confirm  us  in  this  faith;  the  progressive 
changes  from  a  first  formless  chaos  of  dead  atoms  to 
whirling  sun  clusters  and  solar  systems  of  organized 
peopled  worlds  being  but  the  stately  steppings  of  a 
creating  God,  and  testifying  to  a  sleepless  watch  and 
tireless  activity  as  the  ages  have  one  by  one  rolled  by. 
On  this  revelation  of  God's  mode  of  existence  in  the 
past  we  may  safely  predicate  that  of  to-day  and  of  all 
coming  time.  We  can  feel  assured  that  his  hands  will 
never  fold  in  weariness  in  caring  for  his  own,  that  his 
eyes  will  never  close  in  listless  inattention  to  their  fate, 
that  he  will  never  surrender  to  delegated  forces  the  full 
conduct  of  the  complex  affairs  of  his  universe ;  but  will 
ever  be  a  commanding  and  directing  power  everywhere 
present  to  the  uttermost  bounds  of  space,— just  as  the 
vital  forces  within  the  boundaries  of  these  bodies  of  ours 
sway  the  cosmic,  only  more  perfectly;  and  as  our 
spirits,  so  mysteriously  housed  within,  order  the  organs 
to  answer  the  behests  of  their  all -governing  wills. 

But  having  progressed  thus  far  in  our  attempted  solu- 
tion of  this  most  perplexing  problem,  we  find  ourselves 
confronted  by  questions  far  more  formidable  than  any 
we  have  yet  met.  They  are  questions  which  are  sure  to 
intrude  whenever  there  is  any  thorough  thinking  on 
this  theme.  They  have  proved  such  fruitful  sources 
of  doubt  in  earnestly  inquiring  minds,  that,  instead  of 
being,  as  they  too  often  are,  ignored  or  evaded  by  the 


72  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

leaders  of  Christian  thought,  they  should  be  squarely- 
met  and  fully  answered.  I  remember  stating  them  once 
at  a  prayer- meeting  presided  over  by  my  pastor,  who 
was  also  a  college  professor;  and,  although  they  were 
perfectly  germane  to  the  subject  of  the  evening,  and  I 
asked  for  light  and  needed  it,  he  simply  remarked, 
^^ There  is  some  intellectual  difiBculty  in  that,''  and  im- 
mediately passed  to  other  things,  and  neither  in  public 
nor  private  discourse  did  he  in  the  slightest  manner 
ever  again  allude  to  them.  This  reverend  teacher  in 
his  evasive  indifference  is,  I  fear,  far  from  being  an  ex- 
ceptional case,  for  it  has  never  been  my  fortune  to  have 
either  heard  from  the  pulpit  or  seen  in  print  any  at- 
tempted reply. 

Grant,  says  the  doubting  Thomas,  that  it  is  true  and 
demonstrable,  as  claimed,  that  God  can  interfere,  that  he 
has  interfered  and  is  still  interfering,  and  interfering 
every  day  and  hour,  in  every  individual  life,  watching 
that  life,  with  loving  interest  and  with  unremitting 
care,  still  what  proof  is  there,  in  all  this,  that  prayer 
has  in  a  single  instance  effected  any  change  in  the  plans 
which  God  had  formed  before  the  prayer  was  uttered  ? 
Has  any  prayer  given  God  any  new  information  as  to  the 
needs  of  any  petitioner;  or  rather,  has  not  God  had 
from  the  first  an  infinitely  fuller  and  more  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  entire  life-necessities  of  every  soul 
than  the  soul  itself  can  ever  possibly  have,  with  its  im- 
perfect finite  faculties  and   meagre  experience?     Is  it 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  73 

not  absurd  to  imagine  that  we  can  in  any  way  instruct 
Jehovah?  Do  not  our  prayers  appear  to  him  who 
knows  our  real  needs  but  utterances  of  wildest  absurdi- 
ties? But  suppose  they  do  sometimes  actually  voice  our 
real  wants,  have  not  those  wants  already  been  known  to 
God  and  definitely  provided  for  by  him?  Has  he  not 
been  busy  for  ages  fitting  up  this  world  for  us?  Are 
not  those  instances  of  his  direct  interference  which  are 
insisted  on  as  having  actually  occurred  and  as  still 
occurring,  as  much  parts  of  this  original  plan  as  the 
formation  of  a  crystal  or  the  growth  of  a  tree?  Has  he 
not  thought  out  to  the  minutest  detail  just  what  to  do 
and  how  to  do  it?  Are  the  forces  at  work  in  the  world, 
and  their  combinations,  so  complex  that  exigencies  are 
constantly  arising  which  escaped  God's  foreknowledge  or 
for  which  he  failed  to  provide  ?  Does  science  or  revela- 
tion afford  us  any  warrant  in  thus  limiting  God's  wisdom 
or  questioning  the  perfection  of  his  works?  If  God 
thus  thought  out  deliberately  and  fully  his  vast  plans 
before  he  uttered  his  first  creative  fiat,  and  had  as  his 
guide  a  perfect  and  all- comprehending  foreknowledge, 
think  you  his  will  has  since  become  so  vacillating  that 
he  can  be  cajoled  against  his  best  judgment,  or  that 
more  kindly  feelings  can  be  enkindled  within  him,  by 
the  blind,  passionate  pleadings  of  creatures  of  his  own 
make,  and  whose  lives  are  yet  but  in  the  bud  ? 

The  only  reply  I  have  ever  heard  given  leaves  the 
difficulties  just  where  it  found  them.    It  is  this,  that  the 


74  SCIENCE  AND  PBA  YER. 

prayers  of  God's  people  have  been  all  foreknown  to  him, 
and  their  answers  provided  for,  uncomputed  ages  before 
they  were  uttered  j  that  they  entered  into  God's  thought 
when  he  formed  his  original  plan,  and  were  made  to 
constitute  an  integral  part  of  it.  This  reply  is  so  plaus- 
ible and  has  given  such  general  satisfaction,  that  it  may 
be  regarded  as  the  accepted  creed  of  Christendom. 

Suppose  this  were  true,  that  God  has  both  foreknown 
all  prayers  and  made  ample  provision  for  each  as  each 
deserves,  would  not  the  difidculties  just  urged  still 
remain  ?  For  if  the  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth 
much,  as  the  Scriptures  teach,  and  if  it  had  influence 
with  God,  as  Christians  believe,  what  matters  it,  so 
far  as  these  objections  lie,  whether  that  influence  is 
exerted  now  or  was  exerted  ages  ago  ?  For,  according  to 
the  supposition,  prayer  has  actually  wrought  a  change  in 
the  divine  purpose  just  the  same,  only  at  an  earlier 
date  ;  and  it  is  just  as  truly  an  embodiment  of  the  blind 
longings  of  a  finite  being  addressed  to  an  infinite  God  ; 
and  the  fact  of  the  prayer's  availing — which  must  mean, 
if  it  means  anything,  that  it  actually  effects  a  change  in 
God's  plan  at  the  time  its  influence  is  felt — witnesses 
just  as  pointedly  against  the  perfection  of  God's  plan, 
since  it  existed  before  the  change  was  wrought,  and 
against  the  stability  of  his  purpose,  whether  that  change 
occurs  now  or  took  place  before  the  chaotic  fire-mist  was 
rolled  into  suns.  But,  say  you,  how,  then,  can  the 
objection  be   answered?     Only  in   this  one   way, — by 


/sciexc:e  and  pea  yer.  75 

denying  the  doubter's  major  premise,  that  God's  fore- 
knowledge is  all-comprehending.  The  denial  of  this, 
I  believe,  can  be  shown  to  be  in  perfect  consonance  both 
with  sound  philosophy  and  the  revealed  word  when 
once  that  word  is  rightly  understood.  Let  us  then 
examine  this  denial,  first,  from  a  philosophical  stand- 
point, from  the  standpoint  of  the  science  of  metaphysics. 
If  God  foreknows  everything  that  will  ever  come 
to  pass,  all  his  own  mental  states  must  necessarily  be  in- 
cluded in  that  foreknowledge.  His  eternal  past  and 
eternal  future  must  be  to  him  an  eternal  now.  This 
is  axiomatic.  A  moment's  reflection  will  convince  us 
that  otherwise  there  is  not  a  single  present  intention 
or  plan  but  what  is  exposed  to  the  possibility  of  modifi- 
cation. If  a  single  thought  or  emotion  is  ever  going 
to  spring  up  in  God's  mind  unanticipated,  coming  in 
as  a  complete  surprise,  God  himself  must  be  as  ignorant 
as  we  as  to  what  part  of  his  vast  plans  it  will  pertain,  or 
what  will  be  its  relative  importance,  or  what  the  radius 
or  duration  of  its  influence.  Indeed,  both  radius  and 
duration  must  be  absolutely  infinite  j  for,  however 
minute  the  influence  or  modification,  it  must  result 
in  others,  and  those  in  others  still — the  circle  widening 
thus  without  end  j  for  the  parts  of  God's  plan  are 
supposed  to  be  intimately  interlinked,  complemental,  so 
precisely  fitted  part  to  part  that  the  effect  of  each  is  felt 
throughout  the  whole,  like  the  intricate  complications  of 
a  piece  of  mechanism.     And  if  one  thought  or  emotion 


76  SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YER, 

may  thus  spring  into  being  unanticipated,  be  absolutely 
original,  why  not  ten  or  ten  thousand?  Indeed,  what 
limit  can  be  placed  on  their  number  or  on  their  modify- 
ing power?  And  so,  if  we  would  logically  defend  a 
belief  in  the  all -comprehensiveness  of  God's  foreknowl- 
edge, we  must  afiSrm  that  not  a  single  new  idea  can  arise 
in  his  mind — not  a  single  new  emotion  be  felt,  and 
that  if  he  is  thus  limited  now  he  must  have  been  equally 
so  at  every  moment  in  all  the  eternal  past,  and  must 
be  through  all  the  years  to  come  ;  for  if  there  ever 
has  been,  or  ever  will  be,  a  moment  when  a  new  thought 
can  thus  come,  then  during  all  the  time  preceding 
that  moment  the  foreknowledge  was  incomplete.  Where 
does  this  lead  us?  In  what  sort  of  an  intellectual  or 
emotional  condition  does  this  irrefragable  logic  compel 
us  to  assert  God  to  be  continually?  Unquestionably 
that  of  perfect  stagnation.  No  thought  processes  can  be 
carried  on  under  such  conditions — ^no  succession  of 
ideas,  no  change  of  mental  state ;  but  God  must  have 
been,  and  must  still  be,  imprisoned  in  a  hopelessly  dead 
calm. 

When  then  did  he  form  his  plans  for  creation? 
Under  this  supposition,  there  never  could  have  been 
a  time  when  he  began  to  think  about  them,  nor  a  period 
during  which  he  adjusted  their  different  parts,  each 
to  each,  in  that  perfection  of  harmony  which  so  astounds 
us  ;  for  that  would  involve  thought-succession.  We  are 
not  at  liberty  under  this  supposition  to   affirm  even 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB.  77 

that  the  entire  plan  in  all  its  details  flashed  instantly 
upon  him, — for  this  would  impeach  the  perfection  of  his 
foreknowledge  up  to  the  instant  of  such  inflooding  of 
thought,  but  must  content  ourselves  with  asserting 
that  it  has  existed  in  his  mind  from  all  eternity  as 
one  of  its  constituent  elements.  If  God  has  had  no 
thought-succession,  he  can  have  had  no  feeling ;  his 
emotional  state  having  ever  necessarily  been  that  of  un- 
broken placidity — of  absolute  apathy,  his  heart  throb- 
less  as  stone.  He  could  experience  no  change  of  feeling; 
for  that  would  involve  thought-succession.  From  all 
the  sources  of  joy  or  sorrow  of  which  we  can  conceive, 
he  would  be  utterly  debarred — from  pleasurable  or  pain- 
ful memories,  from  hopes  and  forebodings,  from  social 
sympathies,  from  emotions  that  accompany  changes, 
contrasts,  surprises,  from  the  glow  of  activity,  even 
from  the  delights  and  griefs  of  contemplation ;  for  they 
all  involve  thought- movement.  Therefore  under  this 
supposition  God  can  have  no  emotional  activity,  for 
he  would  have  no  thought-activity  for  its  background. 
Thoughts  must  course,  must  come  and  go,  or  the  heart 
lies  dead. 

Such  are  the  absurdities  in  which  we  become  hope- 
lessly entangled  the  moment  we  attempt  to  defend  the 
doctrine  of  God's  perfect  foreknowledge.  And  besides, 
on  further  reflection,  we  will  discover  that  it  is,  after  all, 
utterly  impossible,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  for 
God  to  foreknow  all  his  own  future.     The  very  fact  that 


78  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER, 

he  is  a  sovereign  spirit  precludes  this.  It  is  equally  im- 
possible, and  for  the  same  reason,  for  him  to  know 
what  our  future  will  be.  He  has  made  us  equally 
with  himself  of  sovereign  will,  and  placed  upon  us 
all  the  responsibilities  of  that  sovereignty.  When  he 
thus  created  us  in  his  own  image,  he,  by  that  very 
act,  surrendered  a  part  both  of  his  power  and  of  his 
foreknowledge.  He  has  left  it  possible  for  us,  despite 
all  the  influences  he  can  bring  to  bear,  to  rebel  against 
his  throne  and  persist  in  that  rebellion.  He  in  thus 
constituting  us  the  arbiters  of  our  destinies,  necessarily 
circumscribed  his  own  power.  There  was  no  other 
course  open  to  him.  We  must  be  free,  must  be  sover- 
eign, if  we  become  morally  accountable,  and  ever  reach 
up  out  of  a  state  of  simple  innocency  to  that  of  divine 
virtue.  And  God  when  he  thus  surrendered  absolute 
control,  also  of  necessity  limited  his  foreknowledge, 
for  our  own  self-study  reveals  that  our  perfect  freedom 
of  choice  is  inseparably  linked  with  uncertainty  as  to 
what  that  choice  will  be.  Character  can  be  evolved 
only  out  of  struggle.  Virtues  are  the  names  of  vic- 
tories won  over  temptations  ;  and  where  temptations 
environ  a  sovereign  will,  there  must  be  risks,  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  uncertainty.  It  cannot  be  otherwise. 
We  cannot  exercise  this  sovereignty  or  know  that  we 
have  it,  unless  there  are  open  to  us  two  or  more  courses 
from  which  to  choose,  and  our  fidelity  to  principle  or 
the  depth    of   our  self-sacrificing  affection  cannot  be 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  79 

developed  or  brought  to  test  except  by  genuine  wage 
of  battle.  And  how  can  it  be  certainly  known  whether 
this  shall  issue  in  defeat  or  be  made  glorious  by  decisive 
victory  ?  From  the  very  nature  of  things,  complete  fore- 
knowledge is  precluded,  for  we  can  go  in  the  direction  of 
either  the  weaker  or  the  stronger  motive.  But,  say  you, 
perhaps  we  have  the  power  thus  to  go,  but  in  point 
of  fact  we  never  do,  for  the  motive  that  controls  us 
proves  itself  the  stronger  in  that  we  invariably  yield 
to  it.  This  is  too  wide  a  conclusion  for  the  premises. 
Our  yielding  does  not  prove  it  the  stronger  intrinsically, 
but  simply  relatively,  and  then  only  because  we  make  it 
so  through  our  choosing  to  direct  and  hold  the  current 
of  our  thoughts  in  that  direction  until  the  chosen  object 
of  contemplation  acquires  prominence  and  power.  We 
cannot  stop  the  flow  of  thought,  but  can  change  its 
direction.  And  even  God  himself  cannot  with  unerring 
certainty  predict  what  that  change  will  be,  for  it  is 
purely  an  act  of  sovereignty.  If,  in  fact,  we  never  go  in 
the  direction  of  the  weaker  motive,  how  do  we  know  we 
can?  Would  not  this  unbroken  regularity  prove  the 
presence  of  inexorable  law?  The  testimony  of  our 
inner  consciousness  that  we  could  do  differently,  would 
under  such  circumstances  never  come  to  proof  And 
yet  only  where  strict  regularity  prevails,  can  the 
necessary  data  be  obtained  for  perfect  foreknowledge. 
Outside  this  circle  of  responsible  sovereignty,  under  the 
reign  of  absolutism,  of  immutable  order,  within  which 


80  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

the  physical  and  vital  forces  and  the  pure  animal  in- 
stincts work  their  wonders,  God  can  of  course  predict 
with  unerring  certainty,  and  to  the  minutest  detail ;  for 
the  plan  is  all  his  own,  and  from  it  there  is  not  the 
slightest  deviation,  nor  can  there  be.  Courses  here 
are  predetermined  and  as  exact  as  mathematical  for- 
mulas. God,  who  fixed  the  conditions,  who  founded 
the  laws,  must  know  the  issue.  But  in  the  region  of 
delegated  sovereignty,  of  absolute  freedom  of  choice, 
of  moral  accountability,  uncertainty  just  as  necessarily 
enters  in  and  renders  prediction  impossible. 

If  what  I  have  argued  be  true,  we  need  no  longer 
struggle  with  those  hopeless  tasks  of  harmonizing  fore- 
ordination  with  free  will,  and  of  explaining  how  a 
beneficent  God  could  bring  into  being  souls  which  he 
at  that  very  time  positively  knew  would  be  eternally 
lost. 

The  doctrine  of  God's  perfect  foreknowledge  is  not 
only  unphilosophical,  but  also  unscriptural.  The  Bible 
exhorts  us  to  the  deepest  earnestness  in  prayer, — to 
downright  importunity, — and  encourages  us  to  believe 
that  the  fervent  prayer  of  the  righteous  man  availeth 
much.  Ko  petitioner  can  plead  with  any  genuine 
unction  unless  he  believes  that  he  can  actually  effect 
some  change  in  the  purposes  existing  in  the  divine  mind 
at  the  time  his  prayer  is  offered.  If  he  were  convinced 
that  everything  had  been  prearranged  from  all  eternity  ; 
that  his  tears,  and  sighs,  and  passionate  words  of  longing 


^SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  81 

had  been  present  in  God's  mind  always ;  that  they  never 
had  exerted,  and  never  could  exert,  any  influence,  effect 
any  change,  as  there  could  never  be  a  time  when  they 
would  first  arrest  God's  attention, — how  could  he 
wrestle,  agonize,  in  prayer?  It  would  seem  but  empty 
show  to  him,  that  he  was  merely  playing  a  part.  Every 
word  he  uttered  would  fall  back  dead.  If  he  believes  in 
God's  foreknowledge,  he  must,  while  he  prays,  if  he 
prays  as  the  Bible  commands,  utterly  forget  his  belief 
and  fall  into  the  temporary  delusion  that  the  matter  is 
yet  undetermined,  that  God's  heart  is  tender,  can  be 
moved,  that  his  purposes  can  be  changed.  He  must 
forget  his  belief,  must  go  ahead  just  as  if  foreknowledge 
were  not  true.  Think  you  God  would  force  his  children 
to  such  straits,  to  such  mental  stultification?  The 
thought  is  repellent.  Bead  if  you  will  the  ninth 
chapter  of  Deuteronomy.  Moses  here  rehearses  the 
several  rebellions  of  Israel,  and  his  three  separate  plead- 
ings before  the  Lord,  of  forty  days  and  forty  nights 
each,  without  either  eating  bread  or  drinking  water. 
Each  time  he  fell  down  before  a  very  angry  God  who 
had  fully  purposed,  and  had  definitely  announced  his 
purpose  to  destroy  the  rebels,  and  each  time,  if  Moses 
can  be  credited,  he  actually  changed  that  purpose  right 
then  and  there  and  rescued  his  people.  The  God  here 
depicted  had  none  of  that  foreknowledge  which  theolo- 
gians with  such  strange  unanimity  ascribe  to  him. 
But,   say    you,    that    and    similar    accounts    scattered 


82  SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YER. 

throughout  the  Bible  are  simply  instances  of  anthropo- 
morphism, of  rhetorical  accommodation,  of  describing 
in  the  language  of  human  experiences  and  human  limi- 
tations what  really  transcends  the  human;  that  it  was 
not  the  intent  to  have  these  narrations  interpreted  as 
literal  history,  but  as  poetic  approximations  or  dim 
shadowings  of  really  ineffable  truths.  It  seems  to  me 
that  it  would  be  a  strange  way  to  bring  the  truth  within 
our  comprehension,  to  state  what  is  directly  opposed 
to  the  truth,  and  to  reiterate  the  downright  falsehood, 
again  and  again,  in  a  most  misleading  way,  and  in  a 
matter  of  such  vital  moment  that  all  possibility  of 
religious  life  depends  on  it,  and  through  which  alone 
any  lasting  comfort  comes  to  the  hungry  human  soul. 
Could  Moses  have  thought  that  what  he  was  so  im- 
portunately pleading  for  had  actually  been  determined 
upon  millions  of  ages  before,  and  that  the  picture  of  his 
prostrate  form,  his  streaming  eyes,  his  starving  body,  his 
passion-swayed  soul,  had  been  lying  in  the  divine  mind 
from  all  eternity  ?  He  unquestionably  believed  directly 
the  opposite,  and  the  narration  was  designed  to  teach  us 
that  directly  the  opposite  was  true. 

Think  you  that  Christ  during  that  long  night  of  agony 
in  Gethsemane,  when  he  cried  out  over  and  over  again, 
while  great  drops  of  blood  stood  on  his  brow,  ^^If  it 
be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,"  knew  all  the 
time  that  there  was  but  one  way  in  which  the  race  could 
be  rescued,  that  precisely  this  one  had  been  predeter- 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  83 

mined  to  its  minutest  detail,  and  that  all  that  was  left 
for  him  was  to  carry  it  out  to  the  bitter  end  ?  Were  not 
those  the  agonized  utterings  of  a  faithful  yet  shrinking 
human  soul, — for  Christ  was  human  as  well  as  divine, — 
poured  out  before  a  supposed  loving  and  sympathetic 
Father?  And  have  we  not  a  right  to  believe  that 
they  not  only  deepened  God's  sympathy,  but  actually 
influenced  him  to  again  reconsider  the  whole  subject, 
that  happily  he  might  discover  some  escape  for  his 
Son  from  the  impending  doom?  When  Christ  prayed, 
he  unquestionably  meant  the  same  as  if  he  had  directly 
said,  ^^  Father,  do  think  it  over  again,  and  see  if  it 
be  possible,  and  if  it  is,  let  the  cup  pass,"  for  the 
petition  is  pointless  unless  this  thought  is  embodied  in 
it.  Christ  had  not  yet  for  an  instant  harbored  the 
thought  of  relinquishing  the  enterprise  or  even  imperil- 
ing it  by  any  attempt  at  self-rescue.  He  did  not 
even  ask  for  sustaining  grace.  All  he  plead  for  was  an- 
other more  searching  inquiry  to  see  if  some  different 
means  of  rescue  could  not  be  devised.  He  simply 
desired  to  avoid  needless  humiliation  and  pain.  In 
what  a  pitiable  farce  he  must  have  consented  to  become 
an  actor  during  the  watches  of  that  memorable  night,  if 
he  positively  knew  all  the  time  that  there  was  no 
other  way  possible  !  And  if  he  did  not  thus  know,  but 
God  did,— and  that  too  from  all  eternity,  even  to  the 
precise  mode  and  to  its  every  detail, — and  had  unalter- 
ably determined  upon  its  being  carried  out  to  the  very 


84  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

letter,  with  what  cold,  relentless  cruelty  this  Father 
must  have  listened,  hour  after  hour,  to  that  sorrow- 
stricken  Son  as  he  plead  in  heart-rending  agony  for  him 
to  see  if  there  were  not  some  other  equally  effective  way 
to  save  the  lost !  How  could  he  listen  to  that  pleading, 
wailed  out  on  the  night  air,  for  something  he  had  not 
the  faintest  idea  of  granting  ?  Why  did  he  not  encircle 
him  in  the  arms  of  his  everlasting  love  and  at  once 
explain  the  impossibility  of  change,  if  he  certainly 
knew  that  no  change  was  possible  ?  What  importunate 
pleading !  No  parallel  can  be  found  in  all  human 
history.  Was  it  for  naught?  Was  it  a  stupendous 
blunder  born  of  ignorance?  We  cannot  mistake  it 
for  some  blind  outcry  of  a  sinking  soul.  Should  we  not 
seek  for  some  sane,  sensible  purpose  in  the  plea?  We 
have  here  revealed  not  simply  one  of  the  disciplinary 
seasons  in  Christ's  career,  his  desperate  battling  with 
the  tempter,  for  he  had  betrayed  no  weakness,  no  un- 
willingness to  face,  if  need  be,  any  fate  however  ter- 
rible. He  showed  from  first  to  last  a  spirit  of  perfect 
submission,  for  note  how  carefully  he  coupled  with 
his  passionate  prayer,  ^^  ]S"ot  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt." 
Nothing  could  be  added  to  his  consecration.  His  self- 
surrender  stood  complete.  His  soul  was  white  as  the 
light  that  beats  on  God's  throne.  But  how  natural,  and 
necessary,  and  full  of  deepest  significance,  appears  this 
whole  scene  in  this,  earth's  darkest  tragedy,  the 
moment  that  we  conceive  that  Christ,  instead  of  being 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB.  85 

crazed  by  his  grief,  was  quickened  by  it  to  clearer 
spiritual  insight ;  that  in  his  cry,  ^^  O  my  Father,  if  it  be 
possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,"  the  real  plea 
was  that  the  whole  subject-matter  of  modes  of  rescue 
should  be  reopened  and  again  most  searchingly  re- 
viewed )  that  God  fully  answered  that  prayer  by  a  long, 
deep  study ;  and  that,  when  the  last  faint  ray  of  hope 
went  out  in  night,  he  in  accents  tender  as  an  infinite 
pity  could  make  them,  told  Christ  all ;  and  then  the 
Saviour,  satisfied,  rose  from  his  knees,  wiped  away 
the  blood-stains  of  his  agony,  and  with  a  calm,  ma- 
jestic bearing — that  never  again  left  him,  save  in  the 
last  throes  of  dissolution — said  to  his  disciples,  "  Else 
up,  let  us  go  ;  lo  !  he  that  betrayeth  me  is  at  hand." 

Had  I  time,  and  were  it  necessary,  I  might  multi- 
ply indefinitely  citations  from  Scripture  of  cases  in 
which  it  is  clearly  taught  that  even  to  God's  eye  the 
future  is  not  wholly  uncurtained, — that  he  carries  on 
processes  of  thought  as  we  do,  elaborates  plans,  modifies 
them  and  sometimes  even  abandons  them  altogether 
to  meet  the  demands  of  unforeseen  exigencies  as  they 
arise,  that  he  interferes  in  behalf  of  his  children  and 
because  they  ask  him,  actually  forming  and  executing 
entirely  new,  unpremeditated  purposes  in  response  to 
their  asking. 

Against  this  view,  that  we  actually  exert  an  influ- 
ence over  the  divine  mind,  it  has  been  urged,  as  I 
have  already  remarked,   that  it  implies  imperfection 


86  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB, 

in  the  divine  adjustments,  and  vacillation  in  the 
divine  will,  that  it  is  the  very  height  of  presumption 
in  ns  to  suppose  that  we  can  influence  the  great  God 
of  the  universe  to  do  differently  from  what  he  had  in 
his  wisdom  deliberately  planned.  The  usual  reply, 
that  God  has  from  the  first  foreknown  all  prayers  and 
carefully  incorporated  his  answers  into  his  original 
designs,  is,  as  I  have  endeavored  to  point  out,  fatally 
lacking  both  in  sound  philosophy  and  in  Scripture 
support.  How,  then,  can  the  objection  be  met  ?  In  the 
first  place,  God  has,  as  I  have  explained,  left  his  works 
in  such  plastic  state  that  he  can  whenever  he  chooses  in- 
terfere by  direct  will-power  without  occasioning  any  dis- 
order. If  so,  what  can  be  urged  against  the  belief 
that  he  left  them  thus  with  the  express  design  of  in- 
troducing from  time  to  time  such  modifications  as 
circumstances  should  require?  Indeed,  what  other 
explanation  can  be  given  than  this  for  the  presence 
of  this  universal  characteristic?  This,  instead  of  be- 
traying a  weakness,  a  flaw,  in  God's  plans,  reveals 
its  strength  and  finish.  So  far  as  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  perfectly  foreknow,  so  far  the  conditions  of 
change  and  activity  have  been  unalterably  fixed,  as 
in  the  operation  of  chemic,  vital,  and  instinct  forces. 
But  realizing  that  in  delegating  to  his  human  off- 
spring the  responsible  power  of  free  choice  he  would 
necessarily  let  in  the  element  of  uncertainty,  thus  ob- 
scuring his  prophetic   vision,  he   with    most   profound 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  g7 

wisdom  contrived  through  this  very  plasticity  in  na- 
ture to  be  able  to  meet  any  emergency  that  might  arise, 
to  leave  every  avenue  free,  every  particle  of  matter  and 
every  form  of  force  promptly  responsive  to  his  call. 
His  plans  in  such  a  case,  instead  of  being  ill  advised 
and  marred  with  faults,  are  simply  unperfected  and 
in  constant  process  of  completion.  He  is  thus  afforded 
ample  opportunity  to  enjoy  unceasing  mental  activity, 
and  with  sleepless  eye  and  tireless  hand  to  be  ever 
caring  for  his  own.  To  me  this  conception  of  God  is  by 
far  the  most  exalted  and  stimulating.  Instead  of  an 
idle  spectator  walled  out  of  his  own  universe,  he  be- 
comes an  intense  participant  of  effective  personal  pres- 
ence, a  living,  loving  spirit,  free  and  masterful,  the 
embodiment  of  all  the  active  virtues  and  throbbing 
sympathies  that  are  the  necessary  heroic  belongings 
of  him  who  would  win  the  affectionate  reverence  of 
human  hearts. 

God  being  able  to  forecast  the  general  trend,  the  ordi- 
nary tendencies,  of  the  lives  of  his  children,  has  un- 
questionably prearranged  his  providences  to  meet  their 
probable  wants,  has  provided  for  them  a  bountiful  envi- 
ronment full  of  illimitable  possibilities  of  joy  and  growth. 
For  the  extraordinary  and  unforeseen  he  has  made  pro- 
vision by  leaving  himself  ample  facilities  for  immediate 
interference.  And  then,  too,  by  timely  suggestions  he 
may,  and  often  does,  make  us  willing  and  intelligent 
servitors  of  his  will,  inaugurating  by  a  single  whispered 


88  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER, 

thought,  in  moments  of  crisis,  movements  of  deep  and 
lasting  import  in  our  own  or  others'  destiny. 

Thoroughly  conversant,  as  he  must  be,  with  all  the 
peculiar  mental  states  of  every  individual  as  fast  as  they 
arise,  his  seed-thoughts  fall  opportunely  into  responsive 
soils  and  soon  quicken  into  harvests.  A  word  dropped 
into  the  mind  of  a  young  Luther  starts  a  reformation 
that  shakes  to  its  very  center  the  papal  throne  of  the 
world.  As  Carlyle  says,  ''The  clock  strikes  when 
there  is  a  change  from  hour  to  hour,  but  there  is  no 
hammer  in  the  horologue  of  time  to  peal  through  the 
universe  when  there  is  a  change  from  era  to  era.'^  God 
notes  those  pivotal  periods  and  uses  them. 

Any  human  will  obstinately  standing  in  the  way  of 
the  great  ongoings  of  his  providence,  as  it  certainly  can 
as  long  as  it  is  free,  he  reserves  the  power  of  either 
temporarily  or  permanently  placing  under  duress.  Of 
course,  while  thus  borne  down  by  a  superior  personality, 
while  deprived  of  its  freedom  of  choice,  it  is  relieved 
of  responsibility,  its  acts  lose  their  moral  quality,  and  ifc 
becomes  like  any  other  force  in  nature.  It  is,  however, 
responsible  for  necessitating  such  summary  procedure. 
This  divine  impressment,  this  infringement  upon  our 
freedom,  may,  for  aught  we  know,  be  frequently  re- 
sorted to  in  the  course  of  individual  or  national  history. 
We  certainly  are  the  arbiters  of  our  destinies.  But 
woe  betide  him  who  recklessly  dashes  against  the  thick 
bosses  of  Jehovah's  buckler.     We  are  closely  hedged  in 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER,  89 

by  carefully  constructed    systems  of   inexorable    law. 
We  can  break  those  laws  if  we  choose,  but  we  do  it  at 
our  peril.     We  can  stand  out  persistently  against  all 
God's  good  influences  ;  we  may  render  futile  his  utmost 
efforts  to  rescue  us  from  the  thraldom   of  sin.     The 
whole  race   may   combine    successfully  to    thwart  his 
purposes  of  love.     From  the  very  nature  of  the  case  he 
was  forced  to  incur  that  risk,  for  virtue  can  live  only  in 
an   atmosphere   of   liberty.     But  we    must    remember 
God's  unalterable  determination  from  the  beginning  has 
been  not  to  make  everybody  loyal    and  loving,   but 
simply  to  furnish  the  possibilities  for  loyalty  and  love, 
and  then  do  all  in  his  power  consistent  with  the  con- 
ditions   precedent     to     character-forming    to    develop 
within  each  soul  the  germs  of  divinity  of  his  own 
hand's  planting.     He  may  be  forced    to    summon    a 
deluge,  or  an  earthquake,  or  some  wasting  pestilence  to 
do  his  terrible  bidding ;  he  may  be  forced  to  abandon 
what  after  trial  prove  ineffectual  methods,   and  adopt 
new  ones ;  he  may  be  forced  to  recall  the  gift  of  liberty, 
or  the  very  gift  of  existence  here  and  hereafter  from 
those   who  persistently   repel   all  proffers  and  become 
hopelessly  hardened  ;  but  his  loving  purpose  still  holds 
out,   his  laws  still  stand,  the  golden  opportunities  are 
still  presented,   each  century  witnesses  some  new  con- 
quests of  love,  some  souls  added  to  heaven's  company, 
the  great  scheme  is  steadily  going  forward  to  its  final 
glorious  consummation. 


90  SCIENCE  AND  PRAYER. 

Such  a  view  of  God — of  his  maturing  and  executing 
planSj  of  his  intellectual  and  emotional  life — as  I  have 
endeavored  to  present,  is  the  only  one,  after  all,  actually 
conceivable  by  finite  minds.  To  pronounce  him  uncon- 
ditioned, unchangeable,  omniscient,  ommipotent,  omni- 
present, using  these  words  in  their  ordinary  and  fullest 
acceptation,  placing  no  restriction  upon  their  meaning, 
is  simply  falling,  unintentionally  no  doubt,  into  noth- 
ing less  than  word  jugglery,  affirming  what  to  human 
minds  must  of  necessity  be  absolutely  unthinkable. 
The  only  rational  course  is  to  take  for  our  basic  thought 
that  we  have  been  created  in  God's  image,  and  then  to 
picture  God  as  a  spirit  possessing  in  perfection  attri- 
butes analogous  to  our  own,  although  these  are  yet  ger- 
minal and  sin-distorted. 

I  am  now  ready  to  answer  the  question,  How  can  we 
reasonably  hope  by  our  petitions  to  effect  a  change  in 
the  divine  purposes,  and  why  should  we  plead  importu- 
nately, why  kindle  our  souls  into  such  intensity  of 
fervor?  The  Scriptures  in  enjoining  earnestness  need 
not  be  understood  as  favoring  attempts  to  coax  and  tease 
God,  as  we  too  frequently  do  our  earthly  parents,  to  act 
against  his  better  judgment  out  of  some  weak,  short- 
sighted sympathy.  If  that  be  our  purpose,  we  may  be 
certain  of  flat  failure.  Our  prayers  will  never  induce 
him  to  deal  any  more  generously  with  us.  He  has 
always  stood  with  outstretched  arms,  with  overflowing 
sympathy,    waiting    impatiently    to    bless  us.      What 


SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YER.  91 

untold  wealth  of  deep  inventive  thought,  what  untold 
eons  of  slowly  passing  years  he  has  already  lavished  in 
his  preparations  for  our  coming,  for  our  maintenance, 
for  our  unfolding,  for  our  permanent  weal !  While  our 
prayers  will  not  make  him  any  more  kindly  disposed, 
will  not  noticeably  increase  his  sympathy  for  us,  they 
will  in  most  marked  measure  increase  his  sympathy 
\cith  us,  will  profoundly  change  our  attitude  toward 
him  and  multiply  our  capacity  for  blessing  ten  thousand- 
fold. Indeed,  so  radical  is  the  change  wrought,  that 
what  would  have  been  poison  before,  becomes  medicine 
now.  We  thus  furnish  God  new  facts  upon  which  to  act, 
facts  of  mental  attitude,  the  unforeseen  outputs  of  our 
sovereignty.  That  attitude  is  one  of  Christ-like  love, 
manifesting  itself  in  five  forms, — that  of  willing  obedi- 
ence, of  self-sacrificing  service,  of  sense  of  divine  de- 
pendence, of  restful  confidence,  and  of  intensest  long- 
ing. Until  that  attitude  is  attained  in  all  these  its 
prime  essentials,  God,  if  he  should  interfere  by  stepping 
outside  his  general  providence,  in  which  the  evil  and 
the  good  are  served  alike,  to  confer  especial  favors, 
would  be  doing  violence  to  his  conceptions  of  fitness  and 
of  true  beneficence,  would  work  his  children  a  most 
positive  injury,  placing  a  premium  on  qualities  that 
stand  over  against  these  forms  of  love,  thereby  counte- 
nancing a  spirit  of  rebellion,  selfishness,  self-sufficiency, 
distrust,  and  ignoble  apathy.  It  is  the  fervent  prayer 
of  the  righteous  man  that  availeth  much.     He  must  be 


92  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

righteous  and  his  righteousness  must  be  on  fire  to  fulfill 
the  Scripture  conditions.  That  availing  power  is  some- 
thing more  than  retroactive ;  it  moves  the  arm  that 
moves  the  world.  As  this  is  a  moral  state  of  the  soul 
within  the  circle  of  its  sovereignty,  the  product  of  Its 
absolutely  free  choice,  there  cannot  be,  as  I  have  shown, 
any  sure  prophecy  of  its  coming.  But  when  it  comes, 
all  barriers  are  burnt  away.  Eeserve  gives  place  to 
closest  sympathetic  intimacy.  What  more  natural  when 
the  spirits  of  father  and  son  thus  meet  and  mingle,  than 
that  the  son,  care- cumbered  it  may  be,  or  broken  with 
grief,  or  baffled  in  purpose,  though  battling  still,  should 
pour  out  in  most  impassioned  utterance  his  deep  and 
noble  longings?  Love  itself  would  so  prompt;  for  love 
casteth  out  fear,  is  the  very  essence  of  liberty.  Cautious 
reserve  cannot  live  in  its  atmosphere  of  holy  confidence. 
All  curtains  of  concealment  fall  instantly  at  the  magic 
touch  of  sympathy.  He  could  not  keep  his  longings 
back.  His  father's  tender  look  and  tone  would  break 
the  seals  of  science,  would  touch  his  lips  with  coals  of 
fire.  The  thought  of  trying  by  coaxing  to  melt  down 
his  stern  reluctance  is  utterly  foreign  to  such  a  scene, 
repugnant  to  such  a  state,  and  was  never  contemplated 
in  the  gospel.  What  more  natural  than  that  God's 
heart  should  be  deeply  stirred  by  the  fervid  outflow  of 
such  a  passion  of  love  and  longing,  and  that  he  should 
by  direct  will-power  supply  the  deficiencies  of  his 
general  providence,  or  by  timely  suggestions  reveal  its 


/SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  93 

resources,  and  place  them  in  reach  to  meet  the  needs  of 
such  a  soul  in  such  an  hour? 

These  views  are  not  only  thus  in  deep  accord  with  the 
principles  of  sound  philosophy  and  the  revelations  of 
modern  science,  but  also  with  the  profoundest  intuitions 
of  human  hearts ;   for  when  once  our  sense  of  world- 
dependence  and  of  self-sufficiency  is  rudely  swept  away 
by  some  disaster,  and  we  come  intently  to  long  for  what 
we  find  we  cannot  reach  without  God's  help,  how  soon 
we  brush  aside  all  hindering  creeds,  and  in  dead  earnest 
plead  our  case,  and  plead  believing  that  the  heart  and 
arm  of  God  will  answer  to  our  plea !    But  in  this  in- 
tensely materialistic  and  scientific  age  there  have  so 
insidiously  settled  about  our  thought  the  bewildering 
fogs  of  learned  and  subtile  sophistries  breathed  out  by 
those  who  would  either  relegate  God  altogether  from  his 
universe  or  make  his  relations  quite  inconsequential  and 
remote,  that  only  in  the  distressing  stress  of  crises  in 
our  history  do  our  long-neglected  religious  intuitions 
assume  their  rightful  sovereignty,  and  restore  us  to  our 
true  relations  with  him  who  in  his  great  love  never 
wearies  in  caring  for  his  own.     But  may  we  not  hope 
that  the  night  is  well-nigh  spent,  that  the  fogs  are  lifting, 
that  a  new  day  dawns— a  day  of  deeper,  clearer,  truer 
thought,  of  more  perfect  knowledge,  of  more  enlightened 
faith,  and  a  faith  whose  kindly  light  will  prove  the  sure 
harbinger  of  God's  perfect  day? 


I  HAVE  thus  far  endeavored  to  show — • 

1.  How  God  may  interfere  whenever  he  chooses  ; 

2.  That  there  are  incontestable  evidences^  and  multi- 
tudes of  them  along  down  the  centuries,  that  he  has  thus 
actually  interfered ; 

3.  That  we  are  warranted  in  believing  that  we,  each 
one  of  us,  the  humblest  and  most  obscure,  are  of  suffi- 
cient consequence  to  attract  his  attention  and  secure  this 
his  direct  interference  ;  and 

4.  That  he  will  interfere  because  we  ask  him,  doing 
for  us  what  otherwise  he  would  not  have  done. 

There  is  left  for  me  now  but  one  other  general  affir- 
mation to  make.  With  its  explanation  and  proof  I 
believe  I  shall  have  presented  the  subject  in  all  its 
essential  phases.  It  is  this :  Every  reasonable  prayer 
offered  in  a  right  spirit  is  certain  of  favorable  answer. 
This  is  the  clear  import  of  Christ's  comprehensive 
promise  to  his  disciples,  as  recorded  in  Matthew,  ^  ^  All 
things  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  prayer,  believing,  ye 
shall  receive,"  or  as  Mark  states  it,  ^^ Whatsoever 
things  ye  desire,  when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye  receive 

94 


SCIENCE  AND  PRA  YER.  95 

them,  and  ye  shall  have  them."  If  we  interpret  these 
passages  in  the  light  of  the  context  and  of  the  general 
trend  of  Christ's  teachings,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that 
Christ  premised  in  his  promise  that  the  prayers  should 
be  reasonable  and  that  they  should  be  offered  in  the 
right  spirit.  No  petitioner  who  complies  with  these  two 
conditions  need  ever  fear  failure. 

To  have  our  prayers  reasonable,  we  should,  in  the 
first  place,  guard  against  asking  for  anything  which  we 
can  procure  by  our  own  exertions,  making  use  of  the 
resources  of  physical  and  mental  strength,  of  social  ties 
and  general  surroundings  already  in  reach.  God  is  a 
strict  economist.  If  he  has  already  made  ample  pro- 
visions in  his  general  providence,  and  if  we  ourselves 
can  by  proper  industry  discover  and  utilize  this  pro- 
vision, we  ought  not  to  expect  from  him  any  further 
help  by  special  act.  "We  must  exhaust  our  own  means 
first,  and  ask  him  simply  to  supplement  our  weakness 
and  insufficiency.  Otherwise  we  would  be  asking  not 
only  for  what  God  has  really  already  bestowed — and 
bestowed  in  a  way  which  he  thought  would  do  us  the 
greatest  and  most  lasting  good — but  for  what,  if  granted 
again  in  this  more  direct  manner,  would  prove  to  us  a 
positive  bane,  and  not  a  blessing ;  and  if  such  a  course 
were  continued,  all  incentive  to  industry  and  enterprise 
would  thus  be  taken  away,  physical  and  mental  sloth 
would  succeed  to  healthful,  growth-promoting  activity, 
abject  timidity  and  feeling  of  dependence  would  take 


96  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

the  place  of  a  manly  spirit  of  self-reliance.  No  wise 
parent  among  us,  however  keen  and  quick  his  sympa- 
thies, would  ever  consent  thus  to  shield  his  child  from 
toil  and  care  and  battle  test,  for  he  knows  he  would  by 
dandling  him  thus  in  the  lap  of  ease  and  luxury  be  sure 
to  unman  him,  weaken  his  body  and  invite  disease,  dull 
the  edge  of  his  faculties  and  rob  him  of  every  prospect 
of  progress,  of  every  trace  of  nobility,  of  everything 
that  gives  zest  and  incentive  and  joy  to  life  and  gilds 
the  future  with  its  pencilings  of  glory.  Wise  teachers 
refrain  from  helping  their  pupils  so  long  as  they  can 
help  themselves.  Their  of&ce  is  not  to  relieve  but  to 
incite,  not  dwarf  but  draw  out,  not  convert  those  under 
their  charge  into  cowering  weaklings  but  into  athletes 
and  conquerors.  Even  the  eagle,  prompted  by  a  divine 
wisdom,  will  push  her  timid  fledglings  out  from  their 
lofty  eyrie-home,  and  watch  them  flutter  and  hear  their 
cry  of  distress  as  they  disappear  down  the  sides  of  the 
gorges;  keeping  herself,  however,  meantime,  in  ready 
reach,  and  now  and  then  darting  under  to  save  them 
from  fatal  fall,  for  God  has  taught  this  mother  thus  to 
throw  her  children  on  their  own  resources,  that  they 
may  feel  their  wings  and  learn  to  use  them.  This  is  a 
rude  awakening.  It  seems  a  cruel  banishment.  But 
otherwise  they  would  never  learn  to  i)oise  and  wheel  in 
air,  to  dart  like  thunderbolts,  to  breast  the  hurricane, 
or  to  climb  the  steep  stairways  of  the  sky. 

God  loves  us  too  wisely  and  too  well  to  heed  any 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  97 

of  our  cries  except  in   times  of  positive  and  pressing 
need.     He  will  let  us  struggle  alone  until  our  strength 
and  judgment   fail.     He   will,    however,  always   keep 
in  call,  and  will  in  deepest   sympathy  watch  the  con- 
test point  by  point,  and  we  can  rest  assured  that  in 
the  hour   of  our   extremity,  should   such   hour    come, 
we  shall  be  made  gladly  conscious  of  some  answering 
heartbeat,  shall  hear  some  whispered  word,  shall  feel 
the  uplifting  power  of   some  helping  hand  of   love. 
A  prayer  for  God  to  convert  our  impenitent  friends 
would  be   unreasonable  if  without   conditions  or   pro- 
visos, as  it   might  be   utterly   impossible   for   him  to 
secure  such  a  result.     All  we   can  sensibly  ask  for  is 
that  he  will  make   use  of  all  the  instrumentalities  at 
his    command,    arrest    the    attention,    rouse    the    con- 
science, reveal  the  danger   of  delay,  the  consequences 
of  continued  rebellion  as  well  as  of  loving  obedience, — 
in  a  word,  bring  to  bear  all  the  persuasive  influences 
possible  and  still  leave  their  wills  untrammeled,   for 
without  absolute  freedom  of   choice  being  constantly 
maintained,  no  moral  change  can  possibly  be  wrought. 
Again,  our  prayers  to  be  reasonable  must  be  con- 
sistent in  all  their  parts,  must  be  free  from  contradictory 
requests.      To  answer  such  prayers  in  their  entirety 
would  be  impossible  even  to  God.     To  illustrate  :     It 
would  be  inconsistent  for  us  to  ask  only  for  the  agree- 
able things  of  this  life, — for  freedom  from  care,  sorrow, 
and  pain — from  disappointment,  privation,   calumny — 


98  SCIENCE  AND  PBA  YER. 

from  all  the  vexations,  perplexities,  and  disasters  of 
life, — and  at  the  same  time  that  he  would  develop  in  us 
that  glorious  Christ-likeness  for  which  in  our  nobler 
inspired  moments  we  so  intently  long  ;  as  well  ask 
for  the  knit  sinews  of  an  athlete,  while  nestling  in 
undisturbed  repose  in  the  padded  sleepy  hollows  of 
a  rocking  chair.  The  ignoble  fate  of  a  soul  set  free 
from  life's  carking  care  and  environed  with  all  that 
the  most  cultured  civilization  could  suggest,  Tennyson 
in  his  ^'Palace  of  Art'^  has  pictured  with  a  master 
hand.  If  we  would  be  like  Christ,  we  must  pass 
through  Christ's  school  of  experience.  He  needed  the 
discipline  of  suffering  and  struggle,  as  well  as  we. 
He  began  where  we  begin — in  perfect  innocency  yet 
characterless,  possessing  simply  the  possibilities  of 
virtue  totally  undeveloped.  It  is  because  he  afterward 
became  a  hero,  battle-taught,  battle-tested,  battle- 
scarred,  and  yet  never  knew  defeat;  it  is  because  he 
through  faith,  wrought  righteousness,  out  of  weakness 
was  made  strong,  endured  the  cross,  despising  the 
shame,  suffered  long  and  was  kind,  sought  not  his 
own,  was  not  easily  provoked,  thought  no  evil,  rejoiced 
not  in  iniquity  but  rejoiced  in  the  truth,  bore  all  things, 
believed  all  things,  endured  all  things,  loved  us  with 
a  love  that  never  failed  and  loved  us  to  the  end, — it 
is  because  of  this,  Christ  has  stood  before  the  ages, 
and  will  stand,  as  the  Peerless  One,  the  Eevelator  of  the 
Divine  Heart,  the  Liberator  and  Saviour  of  mankind, 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  99 

the  Prince  of  Peace.     We   must   bear   Christ's   cross, 
would  we  wear  his  crown. 

We  fall  into  these  contradictions  in  our  prayers, 
through  a  total  misconception  of  the  design  of  this  life. 
Evolution,  not  unalloyed  present  pleasure,  is  the  pur- 
pose now.  We  have  been  housed  in  perishable  bodies 
full  of  quivering  nerves  ;  have  been  environed  with  an- 
tagonistic forces  that  threaten  and  thwart  us  at  every 
turn  J  our  paths  have  been  left  rough  and  full  of 
dangerous  pitfalls  ;  poisons  pervade  much  of  the  air  we 
breathe,  the  water  we  drink,  the  food  we  take  to  re- 
pair these  weak  clay  tenements.  To  millions,  life  is 
a  heavy  care- burden,  a  fierce  contest,  and  how  fre- 
quently is  it  one  long  catastrophe  made  up  of  broken 
hopes  and  baffled  purposes,  of  weariness  and  scalding 
tears  and  sighs  for  rest !  Why  is  it  ?  Is  this  life  a 
stupendous  failure  ?  If  there  is  no  beyond  for  which  it 
is  preparing,  it  most  certainly  is.  Could  not  God 
have  shielded  his  children  from  suffering  and  struggle? 
Yes :  but  not  without  hopelessly  excluding  them  from 
all  prospect  of  spiritual  progress,  leaving  them  forever 
on  the  low  plane  of  ignoble,  irresponsible  brute  life. 
The  error  is  widely  prevalent,  that  God  has  by  some 
arbitrary  decision  established  the  great  underlying 
principles  that  determine  moral  character,  and  can 
at  will  change  the  conditions  of  spiritual  growth.  Ko 
more  mischievous  confusion  of  thought  can  possibly 
be  entertained.     These  principles  and  conditions  must 


100  SCIENCE  AND  PEA  YEIi. 

reacli  back  infinitely,  can  of  necessity  have  had  no  be- 
ginning, and  cannot  be  susceptible  of  the  slightest 
change  ;  for  otherwise  before  their  establishment  God 
could  not  have  been  possessed  of  any  moral  attribute,  or 
have  had  for  his  own  governance  any  standard  of  moral 
life.  He  cannot  change  them  or  set  them  aside ;  for 
a  moment's  reflection  will  disclose  that  not  even  he 
can  convert  selfishness  into  a  virtue,  or  place  heartless 
cruelty  on  a  par  with  a  spirit  of  self- forgetting  love. 

What  he  has  done  for  us  in  this  regard  is  to  give 
power  of  free  choice,  and  capacity  for  moral  discern- 
ment, and  to  place  us  in  moral  relations  with  himself 
and  with  our  fellows,  and  to  establish  us  amid  such  sur- 
roundings as  are  fitted  by  their  disciplinary  processes  to 
develop  into  glorious  fact  what  are  at  the  first  but 
bare  possibilities  of  virtue.  We  may,  if  we  choose, 
stand  true  to  these  eternal  principles  of  obligation, 
live  in  loving  harmony  with  these  many-sided  relation- 
ships of  life,  and  thereby  grow  into  divine  likeness, 
or  we  may  persistently  refuse  to  conform,  and  shut 
against  our  souls  forever  this  only  open  door  to  hope, 
miss  forever  this  only  opportunity  to  win  eternal  life. 
Simply  these  possibilities  are  or  can  be  of  divine  gift. 
Virtues  God  cannot  bestow  :  they  must  be  born  of  battle. 
Dark  as  were  Christ's  forebodings  of  the  coming  afflic- 
tions of  his  disciples,  deeply  as  he  longed  to  save 
them  from  the  imprisonments  and  scourgings  and  cruel 
deaths  which   awaited  them,    he,    in  that  last  prayer 


ISCIENCE  AND  PEA  YEB.  101 

SO  memorable  for  its  deep,  pathetic  tenderness,  prayed 
not  tliat  his  Father  would  take  them  out  of  the  world 
and  save  them  from  its  sufferings  and  from  its  spiritual 
exposures,  but  only  that  he  would  keep  them  from 
the  evil,  from  being  finally  overmastered  and  borne 
down  by  the  terrible  power  of  the  tempter.  God  could 
not  save  even  his  Son,  his  best  beloved.  He  could 
by  his  creative  word  speak  a  universe  into  being,  but 
he  could  not  set  aside  or  render  less  exacting  a  single 
one  of  the  laws  of  spiritual  unfolding,  even  for  Christ 
himself,  though  through  those  long  night  watches  in 
Gethsemane  his  shrinking  human  soul  plead  for  relief 
with  an  agony  so  intense  as  to  cause  his  body  to  sweat 
great  drops  of  blood.  Christ,  with  his  human  limita- 
tions of  knowledge,  seemed  to  hope  that  God  might 
in  some  way  avert  the  impending  doom  and  still 
accomplish  the  objects  of  his  mission,  and  so  he 
prayed,  ^'Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from 
me.'^  Yet  while  God  could  not  save  him  from  that 
hour,  he  no  doubt  whispered  words  of  comfort,  gave 
assurances  of  his  deep-felt  sympathy,  promised  his 
loving  presence  and  sustaining  grace  through  it  all,  and, 
once  his  mission  ended,  a  glad  and  honored  welcome 
to  the  skies. 

What  God  did  for  Christ  and  for  his  disciples  he 
will  do  for  us,  and  for  this  we  may  most  confidently 
pray,  that  he  will  not  suffer  us  to  be  tempted  above  that 
we  are  able  to  bear,  but  will  with  the  temptation  pro- 


102  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

vide  some  way  of  escape,  some  way  to  glorious  and 
final  victory.  His  purpose  is  to  supplement,  not  sup- 
plant. He  will  send  angels  to  minister,  will  grant 
moments  of  respite,  and  glimpses  of  glory. 

Our  prayers  must  thus,  not  only  be  reasonable,  but 
they  must  also  be  offered  in  the  right  spirit.  The  want 
must  be  deeply  felt,  and  there  must  be  a  whole- soul 
earnestness  in  the  plea,  accompanied  with  a  willingness 
to  make  any  exertion,  and  undergo  any  sacrifice,  for  the 
attainment  of  the  end.  Until  this  be  our  attitude,  we 
are  not  yet  worthy  of  the  help,  are  not  in  the  mood  to 
appreciate  it,  and  have  not  the  capacity  to  appropriate 
its  blessings:  neither  have  we  prepared  the  way  for 
God's  interference,  as  we  have  not  fully  exhausted  our 
own  resources,  and  thus  disclosed  the  fact,  the  amount, 
and  the  nature  of  our  need.  Our  prayers  should  there- 
fore be  premeditated,  should  embody  only  what  we  in- 
tently long  for,  what  we  are  convinced  we  truly  require, 
what  after  repeated  trial  we  find  otherwise  beyond  our 
reach,  and  what  in  order  to  obtain  we  are  willing  to 
sacrifice  any  lower  pleasures  that  stand  in  their  way. 

Having  thus,  after  most  careful  reflection,  determined 
the  nature  of  our  requests,  being  willing  to  pay  the  cost 
involved  in  the  grant,  we  should  come  boldly  to  our 
Father,  and  in  full  faith  plead  our  cause,  and  then  set 
about  life's  duties  perfectly  confident  of  a  favorable 
answer. 

There  must  be  this  childlike  faith  j  for  Christ's  words 


iSCIENCE  AND  PEA  YEB,  103 

of  promise  were,  ^^  Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  What 
things  soever  ye  desire  when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye 
receive  them,  and  ye  shall  have  them."  Christ  de- 
manded it  of  those  upon  whom  he  wrought  miracles  of 
healing :  ^^ Stretch  forth  thy  hand,"  ^^Take  up  thy  bed," 
"Go  wash."  In  the  command  to  make  the  effort,  there 
was  clearly  implied  the  promise  to  add  the  strength  f 
but  the  effort  must  be  made  in  most  trustful  confidence 
before  the  divine  re-enforcement  would  come.  We  with 
good  reason  rely  implicitly  upon  the  trustworthiness 
of  nature's  divinely  derived  physical  forces.  We  are 
willing  to  stake,  and  in  fact  do  stake  again  and  again, 
our  very  lives  and  fortunes  on  our  belief  in  their 
promptly  answering  to  our  call  the  very  moment  certain 
conditions  are  fulfilled,  and  in  the  surety  we  feel  in 
their  honoring  to  the  letter  the  terms  of  their  com- 
mission. Why  not  as  confidently  rely  on  that  more 
direct  divine  force  for  whose  help  we  pray,  for  it  is  in 
as  true  a  sense  conditional,  with  conditions  as  exact, 
and  it  is  as  prompt  and  ready  to  render  service  the  in- 
stant those  conditions  are  complied  with  %  Eest  assured 
not  until  we  throw  ourselves  as  unreservedly  on  the  arm 
of  the  Almighty  as  we  do  on  the  operations  of  these 
lower  delegated  forces,  and  this  faith  is  inwrought  into 
the  very  texture  of  our  lives,  can  the  blessing  come. 

To  have  the  right  spirit  when  we  pray,  we  must  also 
have  our  thoughts  purged  thoroughly  from  all  forms  of 
selfishness.     It  would  seem  that  so   patent  a  truth  re- 


104  SCIENCE  AND  PRA  YER. 

quires  not  even  a  statement ;  but  this  element  presents 
such  protean  forms,  it  is  so  subtle,  assumes  so  many 
disguises,  borrowing  the  very  livery  of  heaven,  that 
even  the  elect  are  many  times  self- deceived. 

Every  reasonable  prayer  offered  thus  in  a  right  spirit 
is  certain  of  favorable  answer.  The  blessings  bestowed 
will  be  either  specifically  or  substantially  what  we  ask  ; 
specifically  when  the  objects  sought  prove  to  be  or  to 
embody  what  they  seem.  This  is  not  always,  and  per- 
haps not  often,  the  case ;  and  because  of  that,  the  bless- 
ings are  substantially  rather  than  specifically  granted. 
To  illustrate :  I  remember  some  years  since  noticing  in 
a  show-window  what  appeared  to  be  a  basket  of  most 
luscious  fruit.  The  forms  and  the  delicate  shadings 
were  remarkable  facsimiles  of  nature's  handiwork. 
The  bloom  was  on  the  peach  and  the  plum  and  the 
purple  cluster.  On  the  cheek  of  the  apple  glowed 
those  brilliant  sunset  tints  we  so  admire.  The  rich, 
juicy  look  of  the  sliced  melon  was  brought  out  most 
marvelously.  It  was  a  masterpiece  of  art.  I  have 
often  thought  how  differently  my  little  boy,  had  he  been 
with  me,  would  have  looked  on  this  overflowing  basket. 
To  him  it  would  have  been  a  complete  deception,  and 
he  no  doubt  would  have  plead  with  me  to  make  him  the 
happy  possessor  of  it, — not  that  he  might  feast  his  eyes, 
but  his  palate.  The  cool  flavors,  not  the  colorings  and 
curves  of  beauty,  would  have  filled  his  fancy.  A 
specific  answer  to  his  plea  would  have  been  a  downright 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB.  105 

disappointment,  a  disillusion,  which  lie  would  not  at  all 
have  relished,  for  he  would  have  found  it  but  a  cunning 
device  of  paint  and  plaster.  To  have  obtained  for  him 
the  fruit  itself,  of  which  he  saw  only  a  skilful  imita- 
tion, would  have  been  to  have  answered  his  prayer  sub- 
stantially and  to  have  satisfied  his  real  longings. 

Many  point  to  the  case  of  President  Garfield  as  a 
notable  instance  of  the  failure  of  the  prayer  test. 
Countless  petitions  went  up  from  loving  and  anxious 
hearts  for  his  recovery,  and  yet  he  died.  Because 
God  did  not  answer  these  prayers  specifically,  it  is 
strenuously  contended  that  he  did  not  answer  them 
at  all.  But  how  can  we,  with  our  extremely  limited 
knowledge,  pronounce  intelligently  on  a  matter  so  com- 
plicate, involving  so  many  interests,  personal,  domestic, 
and  national  ?  Is  it  not  possible  that  God  conferred  sub- 
stantially the  blessings  sought,  and  that  the  profits 
and  pleasures  which  we  supposed  would  flow  from 
Garfield's  continuance  in  the  private  home  circle  and  in 
his  exalted  post  of  public  service  were  absolutely  in- 
significant compared  with  what  his  martyrdom  could 
under  divine  guidance  be  made  to  yield?  God  very 
easily  could  have  thwarted  the  fell  purpose  of  the 
assassin,  and  that  vast  volume  of  agonizing  prayer 
would  never  have  ascended  to  his  throne  from  this 
stricken  people.  But  do  you  not  remember  how  that 
event  melted  into  most  loving  sympathy  the  hearts, 
not  only  of  all  sections  of  this  great  nation,  but  of  all 


106  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

the  civilized  countries  on  the  globe  ?  Garfield's  suffer- 
ing and  death  gave  to  this  generation,  under  God's 
beneficent  overruling,  a  spiritual  impetus  and  exaltation 
which  this  eminent  statesman,  through  a  life  however 
long  and  prosperous,  might  never  have  secured.  That 
prayerful  and  nobly  sympathetic  attitude  of  all  good 
people  unquestionably  made  it  possible,  as  nothing 
else  could,  for  God  to  thus  convert  this  seeming  catas- 
trophe into  a  most  blessed  benefaction. 

Perhaps  he  saw  such  combination  of  qualities  in 
Garfield's  character  and  in  the  character  of  his  counsel- 
ors as  to  him  seemed  ominous  of  evil.  There  is  many  a 
danger  signal  which  we  do  not  detect,  or  even  suspect  to 
exist.  It  may  be,  too,  God  thus  sought  to  impress  upon 
us  again  one  of  those  lessons  taught  in  President  Lin- 
coln's sudden  death,  just  as  the  terrible  war-clouds  were 
lifting,  that  a  nation's  strength  and  safety  depend  not 
upon  any  frail  human  life,  but  upon  the  cherishing 
of  right  principles  and  the  continuance  of  the  divine 
care.  For  our  earthly  bereavements  and  losses  we  may, 
if  we  will,  secure  priceless  compensations,  ^^for  our 
light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for 
us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory.  ^' 

What  deep  peace  has  come,  and  will  come  still  as 
the  years  go  by,  to  that  once  weeping  home  circle, 
through  the  ever  sacred  memories  of  the  dead  !  What 
fondly  cherished  hopes  have  been  awakened  of  glad 
reunions  in  that  golden  by-and-by ! 


iSCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER.  107 

The  results  to  President  Garfield  himself  of  his  weeks 
of  suffering,  and  final  exchange  of  worlds,  while  right 
at  the  very  zenith  of  his  power  and  his  popularity, 
we  have  very  inadequate  means  of  measuring ;  for 
directly  behind  him,  as  he  answered  the  summons,  there 
fell  an  impenetrable  veil  of  mystery.  Perhaps,  when 
we  too  have  crossed  the  river,  we  shall  find  that  those 
prayers  for  life  were  answered  by  the  gift  of  larger, 
grander  life  than  he  in  his  loftiest  moods  had  ever 
dreamed  of  getting. 

It  frequently  occurs  that  most  earnest  prayers  are 
offered  to  promote  what  appear  to  be  directly  antago- 
nistic interests.  This  fact  came  out  very  prominently 
during  our  late  Civil  War.  For  each  of  the  fiercely  con- 
tending armies,  victory  was  passionately  plead  for  by 
most  devout  believers.  Who  would  question  the  sterling 
integrity  or  religious  fervor  of  Stonewall  Jackson  ?  and, 
as  we  well  know,  he  fought  as  he  prayed.  He  imperiled 
his  life  and  finally  gave  it  as  a  noble  sacrifice  to  the 
Southern  cause.  Were  his  prayers  unavailing?  Did 
God  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  pleadings  of  this  earnest, 
self-sacrificing  disciple?  Most  assuredly  not,  though 
specifically  his  prayer  was  denied.  Those  who  fought 
with  him  side  by  side,  and  shared  his  local  loves  and  as- 
pirations, but  who  have  been  spared  to  see  this  day  and 
to  enjoy  the  phenomenal  prosperity  of  the  New  South, — 
its  quickened  pulse,  the  development  of  its  inexhaust- 
ible mineral  resources,  the  birth  of  its  gigantic  manu- 


108  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER. 

facturing  enterprises,  its  improved  agriculture,  its 
rapidly  growing  cities,  its  business  boom  everywhere, 
and,  more  than  all,  its  intellectual  and  moral  renascence, 
and  the  ushering  in  of  a  new  era  of  permanent  peace,  of 
genuine  fraternal  feeling,  binding  it  in  indissoluble 
union  with  those  whom  it  once  faced  as  foes  on  stricken 
fields, — those  who  have  thus  lived  to  see  this  day, 
with  its  rich  blessings  already  realized  and  with  its 
assured  prophecies  of  vastly  multiplied  prosperities, 
recognize  now  that  God,  while  he  swept  away  their 
cherished  institution  of  slavery  and  denied  them  South- 
ern autonomy,  suffered  their  land  to  be  overrun  with 
devastating  war,  their  homes  to  be  left  desolate,  and 
their  once  proud  banners  to  be  torn  by  cannon  shot 
and  trailed  in  the  dust,  not  only  granted  them  the 
real  blessings  which  they  sought,  but  multiplied  them 
ten  thousandfold.  They  lamentably  erred,  as  they 
are  now  free  to  confess,  as  to  the  channels  through 
which  those  blessings  could  come,  and  they  have  lived 
to  thank  God  that  he,  in  his  deeper  wisdom  and  in 
his  larger  love,  himself  chose  the  means  through 
which  he  should  bestow  his  gifts. 

We  have  discovered  in  the  physical  universe  multi- 
tudes of  deadly  poisons,  hidden  under  various  disguises, 
bearing  remarkably  close  resemblance  to  substances  that 
are  useful  and  life-giving.  Many  of  them  elude  our 
senses  altogether.  We  fail  even  with  our  microscopes 
and  our   most  careful  chemical  tests  to  tear  off  their 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEB.  109 

masks.  We  learn  of  their  presence  only  by  their  alarm- 
ing mischief- making.  How  may  of  our  serious  diseases 
are  traceable  to  these  inimical  forces,  that  lurk  in  the 
air  and  water,  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  foods,  which 
we  take  into  our  systems  unsuspectingly  !  We  are  also 
exposed  to  intellectual  and  moral  poisons  as  subtle, 
as  concealed,  as  deadly,  as  these  which  threaten  us 
in  the  world  of  matter.  How  true  it  is,  we  are  "but 
children  crying  in  the  night,  crying  for  the  light, 
and  with  no  language  but  a  cry,''  so  little  certain  knowl- 
edge have  we  of  what  will  do  us  good !  and  yet,  with 
what  unseemly  haste  we  let  go  our  faith,  and  think 
our  prayers  unheard,  so  soon  as  any  of  these  hidden 
poisons  are  denied  ! 

I  remember  reading  in  my  early  school  days,  in  one  of 
the  text-books,  of  a  nobleman,  who,  while  on  his  return 
from  a  long  hunt  with  his  favorite  hawk  on  a  hot 
summer's  day,  filled  his  cup  from  a  sparkling  rivulet 
that  was  leaping  down  the  sides  of  the  mountain.  As 
he  was  lifting  it  to  his  parched  lips,  his  hawk  with 
sudden  sweep  of  wings  dashed  it  from  his  hand,  and 
then,  with  a  strange,  anxious  call,  flew  along  the  bank  of 
the  stream  toward  its  source.  The  nobleman,  no  little 
annoyed,  again  essayed  to  drink ;  but  the  bird  the 
second  time  upset  the  cup,  and  fluttered  and  called 
along  up  the  mountain  side  the  same  as  before.  A  third 
time  the  cup  was  lifted,  and  a  third  time  its  coveted 
contents  were  spilled.     The  hunter,  tired  and  thirsty, 


110  SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YER, 

his  patience  gone,  with  quick  resentment  struck  his  bird 
a  fatal  blow.  Then,  as  he  looked  on  his  favorite,  dead 
at  his  feet,  it  occurred  to  him  to  follow  up  the  stream, 
for  the  strange  conduct  of  the  bird  and  his  strange 
call  had  at  last  impressed  him.  In  the  spring,  at  the 
very  fountain  head,  he  found,  to  his  utter  horror, 
the  half- decayed  carcass  of  a  huge  serpent,  and  it 
flashed  upon  him  that  it  was  deadly  poison  he  had  been 
lifting  to  his  lips,  that  the  faithful  bird  had  saved 
his  master's  life,  and  that  this  same  master  in  a  fit 
of  blind  passion  had  ruthlessly  destroyed  his.  Full 
of  remorse,  he  dug  a  grave,  laid  the  bird  tenderly  in 
it,  and  afterward,  to  mark  the  spot  and  tell  of  his 
gratitude  and  his  grief,  he  raised  a  marble  shaft  above 
this  his  humble  benefactor.  Is  there  not  a  lesson  here 
for  us?  When  we  are  baffled  and  beaten  back  in 
some  of  our  cherished  purposes,  when  the  cups  of 
sparkling  pleasure  which  we  are  eagerly  raising  to 
our  parched  lips  are  dashed  from  us,  let  us  not  in 
our  haste  conclude  that  our  prayers  are  unblessed, 
that  God  has  either  turned  away  in  deaf  indifference 
and  left  us  to  our  fate,  or  become  our  covert  foe. 
The  seemingly  hostile  forces  may  be  the  very  angels 
of  his  kindest  providence,  commissioned  to  smite  from 
our  lips  by  the  beating  of  their  strong  pinions  sparkling 
drafts  which  have  come  from  poisoned  springs. 

With  these  explanations  I  reaffirm  with  added  em- 
phasis that  every  reasonable  prayer  offered  in  a  right 


SCIENCE  AND  PR  A  YEE,  111 

spirit  is  certain  of  favorable  answer.  To  this,  as  we 
have  seen,  science  can  urge  no  valid  objection.  It  is  in 
consonance  with  the  soundest  philosophy  ;  it  is  in  fulfill- 
ment of  divine  promise  ;  it  responds  to  the  deepest 
intuitions  of  human  hearts. 

The  first  effect  of  modern  scientific  inquiry  has  been 
to  weaken  faith,  and  make  God  seem  simply  an  im- 
personal, great  First  Cause,  rather  than  a  present  loving 
Father,  and  ourselves  but  processes  in  a  vast  evolution, 
parts  in  an  unchangeable  order,  wheels  and  pinions, 
merely,  in  a  mechanism  whose  movements  reach  from 
motes  to  sun  clusters.  A  reaction  from  this  paralyzing 
scepticism  has  already  set  in.  A  faith  fervent  as  that 
felt  before  science  had  birth,  seems  destined  again  to 
prevail,  and  to  be  the  outcome  of  this  very  spirit  of 
inquiry  which  for  the  past  few  decades  has  threatened  to 
relegate  it  forever  to  the  limbo  of  the  world's  outgrown 
and  discarded  thought.  Eeappearing  this  time  as  the 
ripe  result  of  this  nineteenth  century's  tireless  and  fear- 
less research  into  time's  deepest  mysteries,  I  cannot 
see  how  ever  again  it  can  lose  its  hold  on  the  hearts 
of  men. 


CHAUTAUQUA 

Literary  and  Scientific 

CIRCLE 
¥ 

HOME  READING  COURSE 
For  1893=4 


Roman  History  and  the  Making  of 

Modern  Europe 

In  Politics,  Literature,  and  Art 


OFFICERS. 

John  H.  Vincent,  Cfiancellor.        Lewis  Miller,  President. 

Jesse  L.  Hurlbut,  OenH  Sup't.      Kate  F.  Kimball,  Executive  Sec'y. 

COUNSELORS. 

Lyman  Abbott.  H.  W.  Warren. 

James  M.  Gibson.  W.C.  Wilkinson. 

Edward  E.  Hale.  J.  H.  Carlisle. 

A.  M.  Martin,  Pittsburgh,  Fa.,  General  Secretary. 
Mrs.  Mary  H.  Field,  San  Jos$,  Cal.,  Secretary  for  Pacific  Coast. 
Mrs.  a.  M.  Drennan,  LTeno,  Iga,  Japan,  Secretary  for  Japan. 
Miss  M.  E.  Landfear,  Wellington,  Secretary  for  South  Africa. 


THE  CHAUTAUQUA  CIRCLE. 
Aim. 

The  C.  L.  S.  C.  (Chautauqua  Literary  and  Scientific 
Circle)  aims  to  promote  habits  of  reading  and  study,  in 
history,  Uterature,  science,  and  art ;  to  give  college  gradu- 
ates a  review  of  the  college  course  ;  to  secure  for  those 
whose  educational  privileges  have  been  limited,  the  college 
student's  general  outlook  upon  the  world  and  life,  and  to 
encourage  close,  connected,  persistent  thinking. 

Plan. 

A  definite  course  covering  four  years. 

JSach  year'' 8  course  complete  in  itself. 

Specified  volumes  approved  by  the  counselors. 

Allotment  of  time  by  the  week  and  month. 

A  monthly  magazine  with  additional  readings  and  notes. 

A  Tuemhership  book  with  review  outlines  and  other  aid. 

Individual  readers  may  have  all  the  privileges. 

Local  cb'cles  may  be  formed  by  three  or  more  members. 

Time  required,  about  one  hour  daily  for  nine  months. 

Certificates  granted  to  all  who  complete  the  course. 

Seals  to  be  affixed  to  the  certificate  are  granted  for  col- 
lateral and  advanced  reading. 

Spirit. 

The  C.  L.  S.  C.  maintains  that  the  higher  education 
should  be  extended  to  all,  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor, 
and  that  education,  best  begun  in  academy,  college,  and 
university,  is  not  confined  to  youth,  but  continues  through 
the  whole  life.  The  Circle  is  not  in  any  sense  a  college 
either  in  its  course  of  study  or  in  its  methods  of  work. 
Yet  it  puts  into  the  homes  of  the  people  influences  and  am- 
bitions which  will  lead  many  thousand  youths  to  seek 
colleges  and  universities.  The  Circle  is  unsectarian  and 
unsectional,  promoting  fraternity  and  inspiring  help  to  the 
Home,  the  Church,  and  the  State. 

For  whom  Designed. 

The  C.  L.  S.  C.  is  for  busy  people  who  left  school  years 
ago,  and  who  desire  to  pursue  some  systematic  course  of 
instruction. 

It  is  for  high  school  and  college  graduates,  for  people  who 
never  entered  either  high  school  or  college,  for  merchants. 


THE  CHAUTAUQUA  READING  CIRCLE.  3 

mechanics,  apprentices,  mothers,  busy  housekeepers,  farmer 
boys,  shop  girls,  and  for  people  of  leisure  and  of  wealth. 

Many  college  graduates,  ministers,  lawyers,  physicians, 
and  accomplished  women  are  taking  the  course.  They  find 
the  required  books  entertaining  and  helpful,  affording  a 
pleasant  review  of  studies  long  ago  laid  aside.  Several 
members  are  over  eighty  years  of  age  ;  comparatively  few 
are  under  eighteen.  Since  1878,  when  the  Circle  was 
founded,  210,000  readers  have  joined. 

Are  you  Satisfied  with  Life? 

Is  it  too  late  for  you  to  go  to  school  or  college  (are  you  too 
old,  or  too  poor,  or  too  busy)  ?  Should  you  like  to  turn 
mature  years,  middle  life,  and  old  age  into  youth  again  ? 
Should  you  like  to  turn  street,  home,  shop,  railway-car, 
kitchen,  seaside,  and  forest  into  recitation  rooms?  The 
C.  L.  S.  C.  will  help  you  to  gratify  this  desire. 

Arrangement  of  Classes. 

The  C.  L.  S.  C.  was  organized  in  1878.  The  class  that 
joined  then  read  four  years— that  is,  1878-1882.  In  1882  this 
class  was  graduated,  and  is  still  known  as  the  "Class  of  1882." 

The  readings  of  the  several  classes  for  any  one  year  are 
the  same.  The  course  marked  out  below  for  the  year  be- 
ginning in  the  autumn  of  1893  and  closing  in  the  early 
summer  of  1894  will  be  :  The  first  year  for  the  Class  of  1897. 
The  second  year  for  the  Class  of  1896.  The  third  year  for 
the  Class  of  1895.  The  fourth  year  for  the  Class  of  1894. 
The  class  entering  in  1893  is  the  Class  of  1897. 
Four  Years'  Course. 

1893-94.  1895-96. 

Roman  and  Medieval  History.  American  History. 

Latin  Literature.  American  Literature. 

Roman  and  Mediseval  Art.  American  Govern  ment. 

MediEBval  Literature.  Social  Institutions. 

Political  Economy.  Physiology. 

Religious  Literature.  Religious  Literature. 

1894-95.  1896-97. 

English  History.  Greek  History. 

English  Literature.  Greek  Literature. 

English  Composition.  Greek  Art. 

Astronomy  Ancient  Greek  Life. 

Geology       *  American  Diplomacy. 

Religious  Literature.  Religious  Literature. 


4  THE  CHAUTAUQUA  READING  CIRCLE, 

Required  Literature. 

The  Circle  has  gradually  secured  a  class  of  books  written 

by  leading  authors,  and  especially  adapted  to  the  needs  of 

self-educating  readers.      The  Chautauquan,  organ  of  the 

C.  L.  S.  C,  contains  much  of  the  required  reading  for  each 

year,  and  many  timely  articles  by  the  best  American  and 

English  writers. 

Prescribed  Reading  for  1893=94. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  Modern  Europe,  James  R.  Joy fl.OO 

Roman  and  Medieval  Art,  William  H.  Goodyear 1.00 

Outlines  of  Economics,  Richard  T.  Ely 1.00 

Classic  Latin  Course  in  English,  W.  C.  Wilkinson 1.00 

Song  and  Legend  from  the  Middle  Ages,  Edited   by  W.  D. 

McClintock 50 

Science  and  Prayer,  Rev.  W.  W.  Kinsley 50 

The  Chautauquan  (12  numbers) 2.00 

The  Chautauquan  Magazine 

Will  contain  illustrated  articles  on  European  Life  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  American  Colonies  in  the  Continental  Capi- 
tals, the  influence  of  Roman  language,  literature,  and  art 
on  our  own  times,  and  papers  on  a  wide  range  of  present 

day  topics. 

Memoranda. 

The  membership  book  contains  duplicate  sets  of  question 
papers,  called  memoranda.  These  are  not  examination 
papers  but  are  review  questions  which  may  or  may  not  be 
answered  from  memory.  The  filling  out  of  these  meinoranda 
is  not  essential  to  graduation. 

The  four-page  paper  gives  a  brief  condensed  review  of  the  whole 
course,  and  members  who  fill  out  this  paper  for  each  of  the  four  years, 
receive  one  white  seal  at  graduation.  The  twelve-page  paper  offers  a 
more  thorough  review.  One  white  seal  is  given  for  each  paper  which 
shows  80  per  cent  of  correct  answers.    Besides  the  seal, 

(1)  Any  seal  course  paper  will  be  corrected  and  returned  to  the  student 
upon  payment  of  a  special  fee  of  50  cents. 

(2)  Any  seal  course  paper  will  be  graded  and  returned  to  the  student 
upon  payment  of  a  fee  of  25  cents.  (In  this  case  the  questions  which 
are  not  wholly  correct  will  be  indicated  but  the  correct  answers  will  not 
be  given.) 

(3)  All  other  seal  papers  for  which  no  special  fee  has  been  paid  will  be 
graded  and  the  exact  grade  reported  to  the  student  but  the  papers  will 
not  be  returned.  The  four-page  papers  will  be  examined  to  determine 
whether  they  rank  above  or  below  eighty  and  the  result  reported. 

(4)  The  four-page  papers  will  be  graded  and  returned  for  a  fee  of 
twenty-five  cents,  or  corrected  and  returned  for  a  fee  of  fifty  cents.  One 
fee  for  the  four  papers. 


THE  CHAUTAUQUA  READING  CIRCLE.  5 

How  to  Join  the  Circle. 

Send  answers  to  the  following  questions  together  with 
fifty  cents  (fee  for  one  year)  to  John  H.  Vincent,  Drawer  194, 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.  [A  blank  containing  these  questions  may 
be  had  by  applying  to  the  Buffalo  Office.] 

1.  Give  your  name  in  full.  2.  Your  post-ofRce  address,  with  county 
and  state.  3.  Are  you  married  or  single  ?  4.  What  is  your  age  ?  Are 
j^ou  between  twenty  and  thirty,  or  thirty  and  forty,  or  forty  and  fifty, 
or  fifty  and  sixty,  etc.  ?  5.  If  married,  how  many  children  living  under 
the  age  of  sixteen  years?  6.  What  is  your  occupation?  7.  With  what 
religious  denomination  are  you  connected  ?  8.  Are  you  a  graduate  of 
a  High  School  or  College  ?  If  so,  give  the  name  of  the  institution. 
9.  If  you  have  been  a  member  of  the  C.  L.  S.  C.  in  past  years,  but  are 
now  beginning  anew,  state  to  what  Class  you  formerly  belonged.  10. 
Do  you  join  as  (a)  an  individual  reader,  (b;  a  Home  Circle  reader  (in  a 
family),  or  (c)  as  a  "Local  Circle"  reader?  The  reader  may  change 
trom  one  relation  to  another  at  will. 

The  Class  of  1897  will  be  organized  during  the  autumn  of 
1893,  but  students  wall  be  received  at  any  time. 
How  to  Obtain  the  Literature. 

All  the  required  literature  (books  and  The  Chautau- 
quan)  may  be  obtained  by  sending  a  draft  or  money  order 
for  17  to  Flood  &  Vincent,  The  Chautauqua-Century  Press, 
Meadville,  Pa.  On  all  orders  of  five  or  more  sets  of  books 
sent  to  the  same  address  by  express  (charges  unpaid)  a  dis- 
count of  ten  per  cent  will  be  allowed.  Books  singly  and 
The  Chautauquan  separately  if  desired.*  (To  foreign 
subscribers  in  countries  included  in  the  postal  union.  The 
Chautauquan  will  be  sent,  postpaid,  for  12.60,  to  South 
Africa,  for  $3.24.) 

Membership  Fee. 

1.  To  defray  expenses  of  correspondence,  membership 
book,  etc.,  an  annual  fee  of  fifty  cents  is  required.  This 
amount  should  be  forwarded  to  John  H.  Vincent,  Drawer 
194,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  by  New  York  draft,  post-office  order, 
or  postal  note. 

2.  In  sending  your  fee  be  sure  to  state  to  which  class  you 
belong,  whether  1894,  1895,  1896,  or  1897.  A  special  blank 
is  furnished  to  secretaries  of  local  circles  who  forward  fees. 

*  Subscriptions  for  The  Chautauquan  alone  should  be  addressed  to 
Dr.  T.  L.  Flood,  Meadville,  Pa. 


6 


THE  CHAUTAUQUA  READING  CIRCLE. 


3.  Keep  a  record  of  every  order  sent,  including  aate, 
names,  and  amount. 

4.  Before  forwarding  a  post-ofRce  order  or  postal  note,  see 
that  it  is  properly  dated,  drawn  for  the  right  amount,  and 
made  payable  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  In  regard  to  diploma  fee, 
see  C.  L.  S.  C.  Hand-Book,  §  9. 

Fee  for  Graduates. 

The  following  simple  arrangement  has  been  made  for 
graduates  (Classes  of  '82-93)  who  wish  to  pursue  the  cur- 
rent year's  course  of  reading — with  the  undergraduates  : 

An  annual  fee  of  50  cents  will  entitle  a  graduate  to  all  com- 
munications from  the  Central  Office  for  that  year,  including 
the  twelve-page  memoranda  on  the  regular  year's  reading. 

In  this  way  two  seals  can  be  earned  : 

1.  For  reading  the  books  of  the  regular  course  and  filling 
out  the  regular  four-page  memoranda,  a  special  seal. 

2.  For  filling  out  the  twelve-page  memoranda  on  the  read- 
ing of  the  regular  course,  a  white  seal  will  be  given,  if  80  per 
cent  of  the  questions  are  correctly  answered.  See  also  sec- 
tions (1),  (2),  and  (3)  of  "  Memoranda  "  paragraph,  page  4. 

Recommended  Order  of  Study  for  1893=94. 

{For  Readers  beginning  October  1,  1S9S.) 

Roman  and  Medieval  Art— to  page 
194. 

The  Chautauquan. 
JlarcJi. 

Classic  Latin  Course  in  English- 
Wilkinson— to  page  90. 

Roman  and   Medieval    Art— con- 
cluded. 

Song  and  Legend  from  the  Middle 
Ages— McClintock— to  page  37. 

The  Chautauquan. 

A2yril. 

Classic  Latin  Course  in  English- 
to  page  244. 
Song  and  Legend— to  page  112. 
The  Chautauquan. 

Mai/. 
Classic  Latin  Course— conchided. 
Song  and  Legend— concluded. 
Science  and  Praj^er  -  begun. 
The  Chautauquan. 

June. 
Science  and  Prayer. 
The  Chautauquan. 


October. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  Modern 
Europe— Joy— to  page  62. 

Outlines  of  Economics. 

The  Chautauquan. 
yove^nber. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  Modern 
Europe— to  page  117. 

Economics. 

The  Chautauquan. 
December. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  :Modern 
Europe— to  page  174. 

Economics. 

Thb  Chautauquan. 
Januari/. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  Modern 
Europe— to  page  260. 

Economics— finished.    . 

Roman  and  Medieval  Art— Good- 
year—to  page  111. 

The  Chautauquan. 
February. 

Rome  and  the  Making  of  Modern 
Europe— concluded. 


THE  CHA  UTA  UQ  UA  READING  CIRCLE.  7 

Local  Circles 

Individuals  may  i^rosecute  the  studies  of  the  C.  L.  S.  C. 
alone,  but  their  efforts  will  be  greatly  facilitated  by  secur- 
ing a  local  circle  of  two  or  more  persons  who  agree  to  meet 
as  frequently  as  possible,  read  together,  converse  on  the 
subjects  of  study,  arrange  for  lectures,  organize  a  library,  a 
museum,  a  laboratory,  etc.  A  local  circle  may  give 
attention  to  the  cultivation  of  taste,  cleanliness,  etc.,  in 
towns  and  villages,  and  discuss  sanitary  and  other  questions 
tending  to  public  health  and  social  progress. 

All  local  circles  should,  as  soon  as  organized,  report  the 
names  of  their  officers  to  John  H.  Vincent^  Drawer  194, 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.  Several  pages  of  The  Chautauquan  are 
devoted  especially  to  the  interests  of  the  circles,  but  none 
are  recognized  in  the  magazine  unless  they  report  to  the 
Buffalo  Office. 

Many  circles  include  in  their  membership  local  members 
— students  who,  not  having  paid  the  membership  fee,  are 
not  enrolled  at  the  Central  Office,  but  who,  nevertheless, 
read  much  of  the  prescribed  course  and  attend  the  meetings 
of  the  Circle.  It  is  hoped  that  all  interested  in  the  C.  L. 
S.  C.  will  become,  if  possible,  regular  members,  that  while 
enjoying  its  benefits  they  may  also  contribute  to  its  sup- 
port. 

Organizers  of  Circles. 

The  Central  Office  solicits  correspondence  with  school 
teachers,  ministers,  and  others  who  wish  to  promote  an 
interest  in  intellectual  work  in  their  communities.  Intelli- 
gent, enthusiastic  leaders  are  essential  to  successful  local 
work,  and  their  cooperation  is  earnestly  desired. 

C.  L.  S.  C.  Mottoes. 

"  We  study  the  Word  and  the  Works  of  Ood.^^ 
^^Let  us  keep  our  Heavenly  Father  in  the  midst.'''' 
'•'•Never  he  discouraged.'''' 


THE  CHA  UTA  UQUA  HEADING  CIRCLE. 

What  the  C.  L.  S.  C.  has  Done  for  Some  of 
Its  Members. 


From  a  School  Teacher. 

"  Last  year  I  read  alone,  but  this  year  I  have  succeeded 
in  getting  three  others  to  join  me.  We  meet  weekly,  read 
aloud  a  portion  of  the  lesson,  have  informal  talks  and  en- 
joy it  thoroughly.  We  are  deriving  great  benefit  as  well  as 
establishing  a  custom  of  forming  reading  circles  among  all 
classes  of  persons.  I  am  a  busy  school  teacher,  and  the 
reading  is  as  a  tonic.  It  lifts  me  out  of  my  old  life.  It  fills 
me  with  inspiration  and  determination  to  '  Look  Up  and 
Lift  Up.'  I  cannot  say  enough  in  praise  of  the  C  L.  S.C." 
,  Kansas. 


From  an  Isolated  Reader. 

"  AVe  have  just  finished  our  third  course  in  the  Chautau- 
qua Circle — my  two  sisters  and  myself.  Allow  us  to  ex- 
press our  heartfelt  gratitude  for  the  great  blessing  this 
Circle  has  brought  to  our  home.  It  is  indeed  a  great  boon 
to  us.  We  live  in  a  remote  neighborhood  where  there  are 
no  schools  and  have  been  deprived  of  the  advantages  of  a 
college  education,  and  are  great  lovers  of  literature.  From 
this  you  may  have  some  idea  of  the  blessing  the  Chautau- 
tauqua  Circle  is  to  us." ,  Alabama. 


From  Mothers. 

"  I  am  the  mother  of  eight  children,  and  have  done  my 
own  work  during  the  four  years  with  the  usual  amount  of 
sickness  that  follows  such  a  family.  My  cares  have  been 
great,  yet  I  would  not  be  the  woman  I  am  to-day  had  it 
not  been  for  the  C.  L.  S.  C.  work  that  has  employed  my 
mind  in  thinking  of  better  things  than  the  everyday  cares 
of  life.  I  hope  other  tired  mothers  will  be  benefited  as  I 
have  been." 

"  I  am  the  wife  of  a  farmer  who  works  300  acres  ;  keep  a 
girl  only  six  months  in  the  year.  I  have  a  great  deal  to 
see  to  and  to  do.  I  wanted  to  take  up  the  C.  L.  S.  C.  course 
two  years  before  I  did,  but  thought  I  would  wait  until  I 
could  have  more  time.  I  gave  up  waiting  for  time  and  iust 
took  it." 


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